ARRESTED OFFICER SPOKE HARSHLY OF DRUG DEALERS

Earlier this summer, Jackson Police Department Sgt. Fred Gaddis patrolled
the streets of west Jackson looking for street drug dealers.

"Our basic focus is to attack the people taking down the community," Gaddis
said in August. "If you're a contaminant to society, you'll need to be
pulled from society. But I leave that to the courts."

On Wednesday, the FBI arrested Gaddis, 37, the head of the Neighborhood
Enforcement Team - a patrol unit tasked with going after street-level crimes
citywide - charging him with attempting to distribute and possess with
intent to distribute cocaine.

If convicted, he faces 10 years to life in prison.

"You see the down side of what drugs did to people out here," Gaddis said in
August. "It takes a special kind of officer when you're dealing with
narcotics."

Gaddis and Precinct 3 Sgt. Ronald Youngblood, 35, who faces the same
complaint, were fired from the department in 1991.

The two officers, along with Sgt. Billy May and former Sgt. Michael Montang,
were accused of beating Earnest Thomas on Feb. 13, 1991, near Sears and
Mayes streets. They were arrested April 22, 1991, on simple assault charges
after an internal affairs investigation.

Former Police Chief David Walker fired all four men, but the Civil Service
Commission reinstated them with back pay after Gaddis' July 18, 1991,
acquittal. Charges against the other three were dropped.

Walker could not be reached for comment. But former JPD Police Chief Jim
Black, working as a private investigator at the time of the 1991 incident,
volunteered to help the patrolmen clear their names.

"I did what I did free of charge because I felt they had been done wrong,"
Black said.

But not so this time.

"The guys probably screwed up," he said. "I don't think the FBI would have
gone in there and did a sting operation for nothing."

Prosecutors say drug dealers paid Gaddis and Youngblood to provide
protection in JPD patrol vehicles.

Gaddis was arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Jackson; Youngblood
will make a court appearance at a later date.

Youngblood worked as a patrolman for five years before becoming a detective.
Chief Bracy Coleman promoted Youngblood and Gaddis to sergeant in January
1999. They are on administrative leave without pay and face termination.

In May 1981, Gaddis graduated from Edinburgh High School, near Carthage, his
hometown. He enrolled in Alcorn State University, studying animal science,
hoping to become a veterinarian, he said in August.

Gaddis last attended Alcorn in fall 1985, but never graduated, said Roderick
Martin, a data entry clerk in the registrar's office.

"I had no idea I'd be a police officer," said Gaddis, who came on the force
in August 1987 and is now incarcerated in the Grenada jail.

Saddened by recent events, former officer Montang, 51, pointed out how the
public has condemned the officers without a grand jury indictment, a trial
or a guilty plea.

"I'm disturbed by the reaction I have seen from the public," Montang said.
"I'm going to go on a presumption of innocence. That's what I'd do for
anyone."