DEPUTY BOOKED ON DRUG CHARGES

Ecstasy, Crack Found In Home, Cops Say

A St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputy has been arrested and booked on
drug-dealing charges after police found marijuana, crack and Ecstasy in his
home near Covington, the Sheriff's Office said Saturday.

Henri Walker, 21, of 70384 Sixth St., Covington area, a shift corporal in
the Sheriff's Office Corrections Division, was arrested Friday about 5 p.m
after Slidell police officers working on the St. Tammany Parish Narcotics
Task Force searched his home, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tiffany Tate said.

Task force agents, acting on an anonymous tip, found a backpack containing
1 1/2 pounds of marijuana, 25 tablets of Ecstasy and a quarter ounce of
crack cocaine, along with plastic bags, Tate said. The drugs had a street
value of about $3,500, she said.

Walker, whose main duty was as a prison guard, was fired after he was
arrested and booked with drug possession, intent to distribute illegal
drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, authorities said. Investigators
have no information indicating that Walker bought or sold drugs at the
parish jail, Tate said.

Tate said that to her knowledge, Walker did not have a prior criminal
record and that she knew of no other case in which a St. Tammany Parish
deputy had been booked on drug-dealing charges.

Walker could not be reached for comment Saturday. Tate said he had been
released from the parish jail on a $30,750 bond.

In the past 18 months, at least five other St. Tammany Parish sheriff's
deputies have been fired for misconduct while on the job:

- -- Kerry Wascom, 30, a patrol deputy, was booked in January 2003 with
indecent behavior with a juvenile for allegedly having an inappropriate
relationship with a 14-year-old Covington area girl. He was arrested again
Feb. 14, 2003, and booked with possession of child pornography after
investigators allegedly found dozens of sexually explicit images of
children on his computer.

- -- Kenneth R. Meyers, a 19-year veteran of the office, was booked in
February 2003 with malfeasance in office and 24 counts of injuring public
records. He was accused of falsely claiming to have served at least two
dozen court documents.

- -- Two months later, in April 2003, Latrenda Taylor, 27, was booked with
felony theft after more than $10,000 was stolen from the accounts of
prisoners in a work-release program.

- -- In May, an investigation into stolen auto parts led the Sheriff's Office
to two of their own correctional officers, Jeremiah Carroll and Gregory
Silvers. Investigators found a motorcycle that was constructed of stolen
parts in one of the officers' homes, police said. Both deputies were
immediately fired.

Tate said the string of incidents does not represent a trend of
disciplinary problems at the Sheriff's Office.

"We doubled in size a couple of years ago, and a couple of bad apples slip
through the crack every now and then," she said.