PROSECUTOR - ARBYRD MARSHAL ARRESTED AFTER PLANTING 'DRUGS'

Daily Dunklin Democrat

ARBYRD, Mo. -- A Missouri Bootheel city marshal was accused Friday of
hiring someone to obtain methamphetamine and plant it in a man's car.

Arbyrd city marshal Lawrence Underwood, 36, was charged with attempted
delivery of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence and
making a false report. The false report charge is a misdemeanor, the others
felonies.

Dunklin County prosecutor Stephen P. Sokoloff said the incident happened
Thursday night and Friday morning. The chief was accused of asking someone
to get the illegal drug and hide it under the driver's seat of a car owned
by Benjamin McElhaney.

The prosecutor said Underwood solicited an individual to obtain
methamphetamine and hide it under the driver's seat of an automobile owned
by Benjamin McElhaney.

When that was done, Underwood then made a traffic stop, searched the car,
found the substance and arrested McElhaney for possession of a controlled
substance.

The man allegedly solicited by the chief then contacted the Missouri State
Highway Patrol, prompting a sting operation, Sokoloff said.

Imitation meth

The chief stopped and searched the car and arrested McElhaney for
possession of a controlled substance. The purported controlled substance
was actually an imitation provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. A
patrol officer was with McElhaney when he was stopped by Underwood.

McElhaney "is just a guy he had something against," Sokoloff said. "It is a
sad occasion to have to criminally prosecute a law enforcement officer, but
this should remind us that no one, including police officers, is above the
law."

Underwood is a native of Marquand, Mo. He received his law enforcement
training at the academy at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape
Girardeau.

He became a certified police officer in 1993 and has worked for several law
enforcement agencies as both a reserve and an active police officer,
including Naylor and Portageville, Sokoloff said. Before being hired April
21 by Arbyrd, Underwood had been a member of the Hayti Heights Police
Department.

He was the third person to hold the job of city marshal at Arbyrd in less
than a year. Marshal Gary Jones had resigned the job last summer. Leland
Stark was elected in April to fill the one year unexpired term of Jones'
term and within days of winning the election, resigned not only the office
but from the police department as well.