FEDS TOOK NOTES ON ROANOKE POLICE

Documents Filed In Federal Court Raise The Question Of Whether
Corruption Still Exists On The Force.

Federal authorities collected evidence that criminal activity in the
Roanoke olice epartment might have extended beyond former officer
Frederick Pledge, who was sentenced last month to eight years in
federal prison for racketeering.

Documents filed in federal court show that prosecutors alleged that
Pledge and other officers sold guns on the street and were involved
in drug activity. Witnesses also testified to a federal grand jury
about the involvement of Roanoke police officers with drug dealers,
other court documents show. The officers generally are not identified
, but court documents indicate that their numbers were small.

The documents raise the question of whether corruption still exists
on the force or whether criminal activity by Roanoke police officers
has been rooted out. Pledge was the only officer indicted as a result
of the investigation into corruption into the department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said that although the
prosecution had more than 30 people who testified that Pledge engaged
in racketeering, the other allegations were based on fewer sources
and would be harder to prove.

Maj. James Day, who is in charge of the department while Police Chief
Joe Gaskins is out of town this week, said Tuesday that he's
confident the combination of the federal investigation and the
department's own internal investigation has flushed out the criminal
activity.

Among the names that came up repeatedly with reference to criminal
activity, one - Pledge - has been convicted and sentenced. Another
former officer, Connie Lee, who federal authorities have alleged
joined Pledge in robbing drug dealers of drugs and money, was killed
in a motorcycle accident in June 2000.

A third officer, Levert Jackson, who Pledge's attorney, Chris
Kowalczuk, has said was also involved in similar illegal activity,
left the force several years ago and is thought to have left the
state.

Two other officers were put on administrative leave last year while
being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration. One has
since left the force. The other officer is legally challenging the
police department's decision to end his administrative leave when the
department finished its investigation into allegations of wrongdoing,
Day said.

"To the best of my knowledge, he's not being paid and hasn't been for
a while," Day said of the officer. He hasn't collected a salary for
much of the time he was on leave, Day said. A city source close to
the situation, however, said Tuesday that the officer was still on
the payroll, making $32,655 per year, and got paid last week.

Day stressed that he thought criminal activity was becoming a thing
of the past in the department.

"We don't feel like at the end of the investigation that there will
be anyone employed with the police department that was involved in
illegal activities," Day said.

Stan Kennedy, acting resident of the DEA in Roanoke, said the
investigation into corruption was still open, and he declined to
comment further.

But Day said he didn't expect any further charges to stem from the
investigation.

In March of this year, Pledge pleaded guilty to one count of
racketeering but reserved the right to challenge some of the 41
criminal acts federal authorities said he committed.

A federal grand jury charged Pledge, a seven-year veteran of the
force who worked on the streets of Northwest Roanoke, with accepting
almost $16,000 from drug dealers and other criminals. He was also
accused of taking guns, crack cocaine, marijuana and jewelry from
people he stopped from 1994 until July 2000.

As part of Pledge's plea agreement, the second charge against him,
conspiracy to distribute cocaine, was dropped. The indictment also
alleged it was "part of the conspiracy for Frederick Pledge and other
members of the Roanoke City police department to 'shake down' or
steal drugs and drug money from drug dealers."

Pledge never publicly implicated any other officers.

Before Pledge's sentencing, his probation officer, Daniel Fittz,
prepared a report for U.S. District Judge James Turk that detailed
other allegations against Pledge that he was involved with a local
drug ring, and, along with other officers, was selling guns on the
street.

Hearsay is permissible before a defendant's sentencing in federal
court. Presentence reports are kept confidential, but Kowalczuk filed
an objection to the report in court that wasn't sealed and made
reference to some of the prosecution's allegations.

Pledge was taken into federal custody after Turk sentenced him. Three
days later, Turk called Pledge and the attorneys who worked on the
case back to court and released Pledge, allowing him to self-report
to prison in September.

Kowalczuk argued after Pledge's sentencing that Pledge had been made
a scapegoat for the Roanoke olice epartment. A suspected drug dealer
once referred to officers on the force as his "knights in shining
armor," according to court documents.

"We've been troubled from the start that from a charging perspective,
he was singled out," Kowalczuk said. Before Pledge's guilty plea,
Kowalczuk argued that both Lee and Jackson were also involved in
criminal activity.

Day pointed out that Jackson left the force several years ago. Some
of the allegations against officers such as Pledge stretch back as
far as 1994 and happened under a previous police administration.

Kowalczuk repeatedly objected to vague allegations included in
Pledge's pre-sentence report in court documents.

The allegations included that Pledge was "closely affiliated" with a
family drug organization, which Bondurant said was active in Roanoke
in the mid-to late 1990s and had transported 4 kilograms of cocaine
from Lynchburg to Roanoke.

Kowalczuk's objections to the report also made reference to an
allegation that a confidential informant said Pledge and other
unnamed officers were selling guns on the streets and that an unnamed
officer allegedly showed a confidential informant 12 semi-automatic
firearms hidden in the trunk of a police cruiser.

Kowalczuk's objections to the report also made reference to a federal
allegation that Lee also robbed drug dealers of money and drugs.

Grand jury testimony filed in federal court by prosecutors made
reference to more of Pledge's alleged actions and the criminal
activities of several other officers.

One witness said that Pledge, who reportedly rode motorcycles with
other officers and drug dealers alike, was given a motorcycle by a
woman who was dealing crack cocaine and at one time had a sexual
relationship with Pledge, according to the witness.

One night in April 1997, the woman was standing across from the B&G
Market on Lafayette Boulevard with a .380 pistol stuck in her pants
and carrying drugs, another witness testified, when Pledge, in plain
clothes, picked her up.

People who testified for the grand jury also made allegations against
other officers.

One witness testified that another unnamed officer was supplying a
woman he dated with marijuana. The witness testified that he had
bought marijuana from the woman while the uniformed officer was in
the room.

"It was said on the streets that - because ... she never really had
money until she, like, started talking to [the unnamed officer]. And
it was said that [the unnamed officer] was buying the weed for her,
so she could make a little money," the witness testified.

The same witness testified to Pledge's involvement in the drug trade.
The names of some of the people involved were blacked out of the
grand jury transcript:

"Pledge takes dope from known drug dealers and gives it to ______.
Then he can get it for free and give it to ________ for cheap. And
______ sells it for him, makes his profit, and give Pledge what he
ask for."

Another witness testified that Lee stopped him for speeding and
running a stop sign in August 1998. Lee asked to search the witness'
car; when he found crack cocaine, Lee took the nearly $400 the
witness had on him, then charged him with speeding and running a stop
sign, the witness said.

The witness also testified that an unnamed officer came into Moe's
Deli-Mart on 13th Street Southwest, went to the basement with someone
and returned with what the witness thought was cocaine tucked in his
pants.