EX-OFFICER GETS 28 MONTHS FOR DRUG POSSESSION

Last time he was in trouble in federal court, former Prichard police
Officer Larry David Bailey Jr. was acquitted on extortion charges.

On Tuesday, Bailey left U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr.'s
courtroom in handcuffs and shackles, with a year and a half left to
serve on the 28-month term Butler handed him for possessing cocaine
with an intent to distribute it.

Bailey, 31, will get a 10-month credit for having been in jail since
February, shortly after he was indicted by a federal grand jury. He
pleaded guilty in March.

Bailey's case was part of a Drug Enforcement Administration roundup
that led to more than three dozen convictions in the Mobile area.

I've humiliated myself and my family, he told Butler just before the
judge pronounced the sentence. I'm sorry for what I've done. I just
want to get out there and raise my three sons.

Butler went slightly beyond prosecutors' request that Bailey's
sentence be cut from 40 months to 30 months. Bailey's lawyer, James
Kimbrough, had sought a much greater decrease, but Butler noted that
Bailey had provided only modest assistance to investigators, and that
Bailey was on probation for a state theft charge when he was arrested
on the federal case.

Bailey and his partner at the time, fellow rookie Terrance A. Powe,
were fired in late 1997, shortly before a federal grand jury accused
them of forcing suspects to fork over cash and jewelry in exchange for
freedom.

A jury acquitted the officers on all counts in February 1998. Bailey
sought and got his job back the next month, then quit after three weeks.

A year after the acquittal, Bailey sought to have the episode erased
from his record, but then-Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Vollmer
Jr. denied his motion.

The cocaine conviction made Bailey the seventh former Prichard officer
found guilty in federal court in Mobile in the past three years. Six
former members of the department's vice and narcotics unit were
convicted in 2001 of corruption and related charges.