DEPUTIES ACTIONS SCAR POLICE FORCE

Repugnant, repulsive and revolting are just a few choice words that
describe the actions of three former Jones County sheriff's deputies
accused of misdeeds while they were members of a task force
established to ferret out illegal drug activity.

And those are gentler adjectives. What was once known as the
Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force can now go down as a public
farce, all thanks to the actions of Roger Williams, 44; Chris Smith,
34; and Randall Parker, 32. On Tuesday, the three former deputies
waived their right to a grand jury investigation and agreed to plead
guilty to charges ranging from planting evidence to assaulting
defendants and embezzlement.

Tuesday, they made their pleas and were released on signature bonds.

They will be sentenced in January and could still face a Department
of Audit investigation.

What the officers admitted to doing cannot be dismissed as just a few
apples gone bad. Through their misconduct, they contaminate the work
of all the other law enforcement officers who put their lives on the
line every day trying to make Jones County a safer community.

As a result of their behavior, nearly three dozen drug cases
involving at least 34 people had to be dismissed because deputies
either planted evidence on suspects or tampered with evidence that
had been gathered. The people the deputies are accused of setting up,
for lack of a better phrase, are not angels, to say the least.

They were suspected in drug trafficking, and they could be implicated
in subsequent cases.

Jones County Sheriff Larry Dykes believes some of them could be back
in court before the end of the year.

That's some consolation but it doesn't begin to address the larger
issue. Law enforcement officers, especially those who have been given
a special assignment involving illicit drug dealings, hold a high
place in the public spotlight. They are seen as the buffer, indeed
the last line of defense, between the good and the bad, the
law-abiding and the lawless, and right and wrong. When law
enforcement officers cross that line, they not only violate the oath
of office they were sworn to uphold but they betray the very trust of
the public that depends on their integrity, honesty and their own
sense of duty. J. Ronald Parrish, Jones County assistant district
attorney, summed it up best when he explained the damage the
officers' misconduct had caused. "We could not go forward with the
cases because there were problems with evidence-tampering and
planting evidence on some defendants," Parrish said. If the officers
still don't get it after that, they should try to absorb this. The
notion of "innocent until proven guilty" still matters.

We are still a nation of laws. What they did was unlawful, and rather
frightening.