FBI PROBES CLAIM OF Q-C POLICE THEFT

Federal authorities are investigating allegations by a convicted drug
dealer that police stole $1,350 in cash during a drug raid at the man's
Davenport home in 1998.

Joseph L. Brown filed court documents March 13 asking a U.S. District judge
to order police to return the money. Brown claims in the documents that
police took the money from inside a bedroom lamp while serving a search
warrant at his home, located at 1532 Eastern Ave., on Oct. 9, 1998.

He also is suing the police agencies involved in the raid, including the
Quad-City Metropolitan Enforcement group, or MEG. MEG is a regional drug
task force made up of officers from departments throughout the Quad-Cities
and operated under the auspices of the Illinois State Police.

Davenport Police Chief Mike Bladel said the Davenport department's internal
affairs office completed an inquiry into the matter at the request of MEG
agents and referred the case to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office in
Rock Island prior to Nov. 1, when Bladel took over as chief.

He confirmed Friday that two Davenport officers assisted MEG and
Quad-Cities Federal Anti-Gang Task Force agents in the search of Brown's
home. But he added that the department's internal affairs investigation
cleared his officers in the matter.

"This is a closed issue in regard to my personnel unless more information
is forthcoming from federal authorities," he said. "As a whole, I concurred
with our internal affairs investigation that the allegation was
unsubstantiated — meaning we couldn't prove it, and we couldn't disprove it.

"Any further comment will have to come from the FBI," he added.

Calls placed by the Quad-City Times to the FBI office in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, and the U.S. Attorney's office in Rock Island were not returned.

Police arrested Brown on federal drug charges after they found a pound of
cannabis, one gram of cocaine and other drug paraphernalia in the home
during the search, court records state. He was convicted of conspiring to
distribute crack cocaine and is serving a 16 1/2-year prison sentence
without the possibility of parole, U.S. District Court records state.

Brown's complaint identifies nine officers involved in the search,
including six from MEG, one from the federal anti-gang task force and two
from Davenport.

Greg Trudell, now a Bettendorf police lieutenant, was deputy director of
MEG at the time of the search. He said Brown complained to MEG officials
that officers had stolen the money from his home shortly after the search.

MEG referred the case to the Davenport Police Department's internal affairs
office to eliminate any conflicts of interest, Trudell said.

"We certainly weren't going to investigate ourselves," he said.