TWO POLICE OFFICERS JAILED IN DRUG RING AFTER FBI UNDERCOVER OPERATION

Metro police officer Chris S. Walden and Lebanon police officer Joseph
Elder had badges and guns and were on the front lines of fighting crime in
their districts.

Today, however, they are behind bars and thought to have operated a drug
ring that put hundreds - maybe thousands - of pounds of marijuana on the
streets of Middle Tennessee.

Federal authorities arrested Walden and Elder on Wednesday after Walden,
32, tried to buy 600 pounds of marijuana for $20,000 from an undercover FBI
agent, authorities say.

Police said that Joseph Elder, a two-year canine officer with the Lebanon
Police Department, provided most of the $20,000 to Walden to buy the marijuana.

Investigators said Elder was to be the distributor for the two-man team.
Both were selling marijuana for $600 a pound, police said. Elder was
arrested in Lebanon yesterday.

Last night, U.S. marshals had the two officers in custody. They are being
held without bond until a detention hearing, federal authorities say.
Police are still trying to find out more about how the drugs were
dispersed, according to a news release from the Metro Police Department and
the FBI.

Both officers are charged with possessing and distributing marijuana and
with using a firearm while trafficking. Each of the three charges carries a
minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum $2 million fine.

"I was surprised and also saddened," Metro Police Chief Emmett Turner said
during a news conference yesterday at the Criminal Justice Center downtown.

"This is one of those unfortunate situations where police officers are
involved in illegal activity," Turner said. "And we have an obligation to
investigate . just like we would with any other investigation."

Authorities think Walden, a bicycle patrolman in the John Henry Hale public
housing complex, bought 1,500 pounds of marijuana in the past year from
Mexican sources. No other Metro officers were thought to be involved,
police said yesterday.

According to a personnel file, Walden had been suspended several times from
work. He was suspended twice in 1997 when he backed his patrol car into
another car and into a pole.

He served a two-day suspension in 1996 when he was a trainee. The incident
occurred in a parking lot at Clarksville Highway and Ashland City Highway,
when Metro detective E.J. Bernard, dressed in plain clothes, noticed that
Walden's Firebird had "obviously illegal tint" and handcuffs hanging from
the rearview mirror.

According to Bernard's account, Walden, wearing a baseball hat with "XXX"
on the front, looked over at Bernard's police car, then left, squealing his
tires. Capt. Honey Pike, then a sergeant in charge of recruitment, wrote a
memo in 1996 addressing the issue.

In her letter, she said she questioned the "trainee's maturity level, his
motivation for wanting to become an officer, and his ability to work in an
unsupervised environment."

"Mr. Walden was by no means a standout in the academy," Pike wrote in the
letter. "It is even questionable if he has or ever will apply himself any
more than what is necessary to graduate."

On a positive note, former Mayor Phil Bredesen wrote to Walden on Dec. 18,
1998, praising his work as an officer. A special unit he worked for, called
FLEX, helped arrest numerous violent and repeat offenders.

Bredesen's letter said that Capt. Bobby Dodson had recommended Walden, an
original member of the unit, for the recognition. Aside from recovering
scores of guns and making hundreds of felony arrests, the FLEX team seized
4 pounds of crack, 2 ounces of powder cocaine and 4 pounds of marijuana.