SECOND FORMER OFFICER CHARGED

A decorated former Mobile Police narcotics detective turned himself in at
Mobile County Metro Jail on felony theft charges Friday night, hours after
his former partner surrendered on a related perjury charge.

Rodney Patrick, once Mobile's officer of the year, faces two counts of
first-degree theft and three counts of second-degree theft. The Mobile
County grand jury indictment accuses him of taking nearly $6,000 in cash.

Sheriff's Deputy Anthony Gardner turned himself in earlier in the day on a
single charge of perjury. The grand jury accused him of lying to a Mobile
County District Court judge to get a search warrant for a drug investigation.

The Mobile Register has been unable to reach Patrick or Gardner for comment.

The arrests further complicate a legal system already coping with drug
cases that were dismissed or compromised because of a separate
investigation that led to federal corruption charges last year against six
former Prichard Police officers. Four of those officers pleaded guilty
earlier this month. The other two are to go on trial Monday.

Patrick and Gardner were partners on the defunct Mobile County Street
Enforcement Narcotics Team, known as MCSENT (pronounced MAC-sent), once the
area's most prominent multi-agency drug task force. Funded largely by state
grants and administered by the Mobile Police Department, the task force
blended Sheriff's Department detectives with officers from local police
agencies.

That enabled investigators to more freely cross jurisdictional lines when
tracking drug dealers.

"This is the second major narcotics unit in the county that has blown up
recently," District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said Saturday.

"MCSENT, when it was working and working properly, was a valuable asset to
the county," Tyson said.

But the task force has not referred a case for prosecution since late last
summer, Tyson said. Around that same time, Mobile Police launched an
internal probe into accusations that task force agents, including Patrick,
took cash from drug suspects without reporting it.

The indictment against Patrick does not spell out the circumstances of the
alleged thefts, only the amounts he is accused of taking.

Tyson said he did not believe there would be additional arrests as a result
of the investigation.

Patrick posted $10,000 bond and was released, according to jail staff.
Personnel there refused to say when Patrick left.

"He's not here," a supervisor said Saturday.

Gardner spent less than 45 minutes in jail and was allowed to leave on his
own recognizance, according to an order from acting warden Capt. Ronnie
Phillips, jail staff said Saturday. Sheriff Jack Tillman placed Gardner on
administrative leave pending the outcome of the case, which is standard
policy, a department spokesman said.

First-degree theft is a class B felony, punishable by two to 20 years in
prison upon conviction. Second-degree theft and perjury are class C
felonies, punishable by one to 10 years.

Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran said he and other top law officers decided
about two months ago to disband the task force and assign its resources
instead to a similar task force run by the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration. Officials made the move in part for financial reasons and
in part because of the corruption allegations, the chief said.

Patrick had been on the force more than six years when he resigned in late
August. He was Mobile's Officer of the Year in 1999 and gained a bit of
fame for literally running down former NFL tailback Sherman Williams during
a marijuana sting that led to Williams' federal conviction.

An assistant prosecutor in Tyson's office told the Register in August that
at least one drug case was lost after Patrick and Gardner failed to turn in
evidence.

Tyson said Saturday it was too early to tell how many drug cases might be
affected. His office will have to inspect the pair's involvement with cases
that have concluded to see whether the defendants' rights were affected. If
authorities determine that to be the case, some of those convictions could
be overturned.

"There is absolutely no question that it will have an impact," Tyson said.
"But I cannot and will not say that there will be a wholesale dismissing of
cases."