BALCONES DRUG COP BUSTED FOR COCAINE

A police officer serving as a supervisor in a multiagency drug task force
was charged Wednesday with trafficking in the cocaine he helped confiscate.

Balcones Heights Police Officer John Beauford was arrested earlier in the
day when his task force colleagues said they found 185 grams of cocaine in
the hotel room where he had been living, court documents state.

That's about 6.6 ounces, worth an estimated $700 to $1,000 per ounce in San
Antonio, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ushered into court, Beauford's cheeks burned pink when a federal prosecutor
informed him that he was being charged with possession with intent to
distribute up to 5 kilograms of cocaine.

Officers say 1.1 pounds — a half-kilo — of cocaine is missing from an
evidence locker to which Beauford had access.

If convicted, the 33-year-old faces a minimum five years to a maximum 40
years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Priscilla Garcia said during the
brief court hearing.

Afterward, Beauford twice turned to look at his mother seated in the
courtroom, shook his head both times, then turned once more.

"Don't worry about it, Mom," he said.

With red-rimmed eyes, Brenda Carden declined to discuss the charge against
her son after the hearing.

"I don't know anything right now," she said.

Described as well-liked in the Balcones Heights department, Beauford had a
spotless record during his five years on the suburban force, including
letters of commendation for his work on the Alamo Area Narcotics Task
Force, superiors said.

Formed in 1987 with federal grant money, the task force composed of about
10 local suburban police departments is aimed at midlevel drug offenders.

Although the task force keeps a low public profile and operates out of a
nondescript building on the city's Northeast Side, it often is in the
headlines.

In July, two task force officers shot and killed a person who they said
tossed a Molotov cocktail at their headquarters. In May, the task force was
credited for a crackdown on a group charged with transporting nearly 7 tons
of marijuana through San Antonio.

The San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff's Department
were members of the task force until 1990, when they withdrew, citing
budget constraints.

One of two Balcones Heights officers serving on the task force, Beauford
passed a random drug test in October; his arrest caught the suburban
department's 11 officers by surprise.

Balcones Heights Police Chief Ken Menn said city officials were waiting to
learn more about the accusations before starting any administrative
procedures, which could include immediate removal.

"It's a really small department, so everyone is pretty much still in
shock," Menn said.

The case stems from a minor traffic accident Beauford had Feb. 8, according
to a sworn statement filed alongside the search warrant by Paul Battaglia,
an Alamo Heights police officer assigned to the Alamo Area task force.

As a member of the task force, Beauford was required to take a drug and
alcohol urinalysis test after the accident. The results, which came in four
days later, indicated a "high" concentration of cocaine.

Asked to take a second drug test, Beauford refused and was removed from the
task force and sent back to regular duty at the Balcones Heights
department, according to Battaglia's sworn statement.

Before being reassigned, Beauford blamed the test results on his handling
of confiscated cocaine, suggesting his work contaminated the test.

Battaglia's affidavit states that casual handling of cocaine would not
yield tainted results.

Task force members immediately started an inventory of seized drugs because
Beauford had been a supervisor with access to the evidence locker.

Three days later they determined 1.1 pounds of cocaine was missing. Further
investigation indicated Beauford had been the evidence technician for a
seizure of five duct-taped bundles of cocaine — one of which showed signs
of tampering, police said.

Last month Beauford said he was checking the bundles for fingerprints at
the request of DEA agents. The bundles already had been tested for latent
fingerprints, and no request had been made to Beauford, the affidavit
continues.

Task force members also noted recent suspicions, or as the affidavit calls
it, "inconsistencies in" behavior by Beauford.

He changed his residence four times in the previous six months, moving Jan.
30 to the Clarion Suites Hotel on North Loop 1604 where he later was arrested.

Also, earlier this month, two members of the task force responded to a
complaint about "drug activities" at the hotel, the affidavit states.

Beauford was asked to meet the agents at the hotel but never showed. Agents
said the hotel manager told them later the female suspect had moved in with
Beauford.

Furthermore, authorities allege Beauford was seen socializing while
off-duty with a "discredited former confidential informant" and admitted
drug abuser — a violation of task force policy.

During three days of surveillance, last Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
authorities allege they saw two female former task force informants, both
admitted drug users, coming and going from Beauford's room while he never
left the room.

Both women were present Wednesday when task force members searched and
found cocaine in the hotel room. They were not charged.

According to court documents, Beauford admitted the cocaine belonged to
him, and one of the informants said she recently had received some from him.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Stein Nowak scheduled a hearing to examine the
charges for March 13 and set the officer's bond at $50,000.

Beauford was released Wednesday night. He must wear an electronic monitor
and stay home except for going to work, church and other sites approved by
federal pretrial supervisors, Nowak said.

Staff Writers Ihosvani Rodriguez and Karisa King contributed to this report.