CHARGES PENDING AGAINST 4 OFFICERS, 2 CIVILIANS IN STING

Charges of engaging in organized crime, burglary and possession of
cocaine are pending against four area law officers and two civilians
arrested in a drug sting.

Arrested Thursday evening were Houston police Officer Frank Ferguson,
52; Pasadena city marshal's deputies Keith E. Wagner, 39, and Troy
Douglas South, 37; Pasadena marshal's reserve deputy Daniel Charles
Wagner, 33; and civilians Michael Joe Wagner and Jon Eric Gibson, both
38.

The three Wagners are brothers, authorities said.

Ferguson is a 17-year Houston Police Department veteran assigned to
the Southeast Patrol Division. Michael Wagner is a former Galena Park
police officer, and Keith Wagner served with HPD from 1984-95.

The arrests were the result of a sting by HPD's internal affairs
division, Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI.

Investigators gave this account:

Ferguson, on duty and in a marked patrol car, pulled over a
recreational vehicle in southeast Houston and arrested Gibson, the
driver, taking cocaine from him and putting him into an unmarked car
with another suspect.

Ferguson then went with his alleged accomplices, who were driving
marked Pasadena city marshal's vehicles, to a home near Hiram Clarke
and South Post Oak. Gibson had apparently told them there were drugs
at the residence.

There the group, acting as if in an official capacity, kicked in the
door and took more cocaine and money from the unoccupied home.

All the suspects except Ferguson then drove to the Meyerland Plaza
parking lot and were dividing up the drugs and money when arrested
about 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Ferguson drove back to southeast Houston and was arrested at a
restaurant where he had joined another officer for dinner.

A police spokesman could not say whether the suspects were simply
observed shaking down Gibson, or whether the bust was a prearranged
sting with the government planting the illegal drugs.

Ferguson, South and Keith and Daniel Wagner have been relieved of duty
by their departments pending the outcome of their cases.

Keith Wagner was arrested in 1995 for recruiting players and
collecting debts for two Houston bookmakers.

HPD fired him after he pleaded no contest to charges of promotion of
gambling and was sentenced to two-years probation, 100 hours of
community service and fined $1,500.

Under a deferred adjudication arrangement, he completed his
probationary sentence with no record of conviction, making him
eligible for the Pasadena marshal's position.

Michael Wagner was convicted last year of misdemeanor deadly conduct
and sentenced to three days in jail and a $300 fine. Details of that
case were unavailable.