JACKSONVILLE OFFICER FACING DRUG CHARGE

DEA Agents Arrest PAL Officer; He Resigns

A Jacksonville police officer who worked with children was arrested Friday
after being accused of running cocaine from South Florida to Jacksonville
and planning to use his badge to ward off other officers if he got stopped.

He was unknowingly acting as a courier for an undercover federal drug agent
and was being tracked by police the whole time, court records said.

The arrest of Daniel Dean Rochford, 27, comes during a nearly yearlong
investigation by federal, state and local authorities into police corruption
in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Rochford is charged federally with
distributing more than five kilograms of cocaine, which carries a sentence
of 10 years to life.

During the probe, five officers have been stripped of their powers as a
federal grand jury investigates allegations of police tipping drug dealers
and their possible involvement in robberies and murders. And several months
before that investigation began, another Jacksonville officer was charged
with selling cocaine from his police car. That officer, Carl Kohn, pleaded
guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Police do not believe Rochford is tied to the other officers in the ongoing
probe. Rochford, an officer for six years who worked in the Police Athletic
League, made a brief appearance in federal court yesterday afternoon and was
ordered held without bond pending a hearing on Monday. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Jim Klindt said the case would be presented to a federal grand jury
next week for a formal indictment.

Rochford left the courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles.

Sheriff Nat Glover declined to discuss details of Rochford's arrest. Glover
spent part of Rochford's court appearance with his forehead sunken into his
clasped hands.

"The arrest of this officer, of course it saddens me, but it's our
commitment to clean up the corruption in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office,"
Glover said. When asked how corrupt his department of 1,500 officers is,
Glover declined to elaborate.

News of the arrest left one woman outside the federal courthouse puzzled by
how police act. Heather Grier wondered what the commotion was about when she
saw Glover and Klindt addressing reporters on the courthouse steps.

"Another one?" Grier said about the jailed officer. "You would think they
would be held to a higher moral responsibility. It gives way to other people
on the street who say, 'If the cops can do it, we should be able to do it.'
I hope they don't get away with it."

Glover credited a task force including the U.S. Attorney's Office, Drug
Enforcement Administration, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and his
office with helping in the arrest of Rochford. He said he asked the task
force to begin investigating his office after allegations were made that
police were tipping drug dealers about investigations.

A federal affidavit gave this account of the events that led to Rochford's
arrest:

On July 13, a person identified only as an associate of Rochford's contacted
a man he thought was a cocaine supplier and made arrangements for the three
of them to meet the next day at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. The
supplier, who was actually a DEA agent, was to give Rochford and the
associate a kilogram of cocaine that they would safely transport for him to
Jacksonville.

Rochford said he was a police officer and flashed his badge and
identification card at the undercover agent. Rochford told the man he "had
nothing to worry about with respect to him [Rochford] turning me in to
authorities or with respect to Rochford stealing the cocaine," the affidavit
said.

Rochford said he knew he was being tested for his trustworthiness. He said
he and his associate worked out a story to tell police if they were stopped
on the way to Jacksonville.

About 2.2 pounds of counterfeit cocaine was exchanged in a black backpack,
which Rochford put into his white Nissan Maxima. The undercover officer said
he planned to follow Rochford to Jacksonville,
which he did, along with police surveillance vehicles.

The undercover officer and Rochford drove to The Avenues mall and the
cocaine was given back to the supplier. Rochford got $1,000 from him and
left.

This week, another transport was arranged. Rochford picked up about 11
pounds of real cocaine hidden in a duffel bag yesterday morning at another
Fort Lauderdale restaurant. They met again at The Avenues and Rochford was
paid $5,000. When Rochford drove away onto Interstate 95, he was stopped by
Jacksonville patrol cars and arrested by DEA agents. The money he got was
recovered, along with his police gun. Later in the day, Rochford resigned
from the police force, Glover said.