EX-COP ADMITS HE AIDED DRUG DEALER

Robbins Sergeant Accepted Payoffs

A former police sergeant in south suburban Robbins pleaded guilty
Friday to a federal racketeering charge for providing protection for
a longtime crack-cocaine dealer in return for payoffs of $100 or more
at a time.

Jerome McGee, 36, who was charged last July, will face up to 9 years
in prison when he is sentenced in July, said Assistant U.S. Atty.
Jacqueline Stern.

The drug dealer began cooperating with federal authorities after his
arrest in late 1995.

From February to May in 1996, investigators made video and audio
recordings of McGee as he accepted nine payoffs totaling $1,350 from
the drug dealer, who was then working undercover, authorities said.

According to his plea agreement, McGee, who lives in Robbins, usually
stood lookout for the narcotics dealer during drug deals in case
trouble occurred.

McGee acknowledged he also provided protection before the dealer
began cooperating with authorities. Over more than three months in
1995, the dealer distributed up to 150 grams of crack cocaine with
McGee's help, authorities said.

Besides providing protection, McGee admitted he gave the drug dealer
a two-way radio to assist communications during the drug deals, once
warned the dealer not to sell narcotics at a public housing
development the next weekend because of heavy police activity and
misused a confidential law-enforcement database to look up the
identity of a motorist for the dealer.

Another former Robbins police officer, James Cooper of University
Park, pleaded guilty last July to taking a $200 payoff from the same
drug dealer. Cooper was sentenced last month to 6 months in prison.