COP SAYS HE AIDED NARCOTICS RIP-OFF

Metro Detective Says Fellow Officer Deceived Him About Traffic Stop

Two undercover Metro officers pretended they were making an arrest
but instead ripped off a kilo of cocaine from a drug dealer, one of
the officers claimed in court papers filed two weeks ago.

The April 30, 2003, incident involving detectives Charles Williams
III and Ernest Cecil is the subject of an investigation by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration.

Williams, 38, was indicted in January and has been placed on paid
leave. Cecil, 49, was stripped of his police powers after a separate
incident and has been on desk duty at the Hermitage Precinct. He has
not been charged with a crime.

The case offers a rare glimpse into the Metro Police Specialized
Investigations Division, one of the department's most secretive
units, whose plainclothes detectives frequently mingle among
Nashville's narcotics underworld to root out drug criminals.

Federal prosecutors did not return several calls seeking comment
yesterday. Metro police officials confirmed that the federal probe
was continuing but could offer few details.

A department spokesman said he did not believe the alleged corruption
extends to other members of the SID or elsewhere in the Metro Police
Department.

"There has been no outside complaint or information that would lead
us to believe that anything is occurring ...," police spokesman Don
Aaron said. "We're not aware of any of these type of issues occurring
now in SID. Supervision would catch it. Word on the street would let
us know something was going on."

Williams' Nashville attorney, Peter Strianse, did not return several
calls left for him. Cecil denied he had any role in a drug rip-off.

"None of that is true," Cecil said when reached by phone yesterday at
the Hermitage Precinct. "That incident happened, but no drugs were
involved whatsoever. It was not a drug deal. It was to gather
information on an individual dealing with some Mexicans. That is
unreal. There weren't any drugs involved at all."

Cecil suggested that police officials were setting him up and called
it suspicious that Williams' statement was filed two years after the incident.

"I am being railroaded."

Metro officials have not conducted an internal investigation into the
matter for fear of complicating the federal criminal investigation,
Aaron said. The spokesman also refused to comment on why Cecil has
not been charged with a crime and referred those questions to federal
authorities.

The incident surfaced publicly in late January with the announcement
of Williams' indictment, but at the time, federal and local
authorities would not disclose details of the incident.

Those details became public in a June 23 motion filed by Williams'
attorney seeking to suppress Williams' written statement to his
bosses at the Metro Police Department.

In that April 13, 2005, statement, Williams alleged Cecil had
contacted him two years ago to help take down a gang member who was
dealing drugs.

Williams said he agreed and was told that Cecil's cousin was a
confidential informant who was planning to buy drugs from a suspect.
That cousin, Corey Eugene Cecil, was known to Williams and other SID
officers because of his previous involvement in drug dealing,
Williams said in his statement.

Corey Cecil, Williams said, was to inform the officers about the
arrival of the drug dealer, who was believed to be carrying a large
amount of drugs.

After receiving the call from Corey Cecil, Williams said that he and
Ernest Cecil pulled over a dark SUV. The federal court motion
identifies the driver as Newman Hawkins. Metro court records show no
drug arrest for a Newman Hawkins.

During the stop, Williams searched his car while Cecil talked with
the driver, Williams' statement said. Williams said he found no drugs
or weapons in the car.

It is not clear from the statement when precisely the drugs would
have been stolen.

"Detective Cecil motioned for me to get in my vehicle," Williams'
report states. "It was there that he explained to me that he was
helping his cousin with some type of drug rip. He explained that his
cousin wanted it to appear that the police were watching the deal and
arrested him and seized the drugs.

"I told Detective Cecil that if that really just took place that he
needed to call his cousin and retrieve the drugs and turn it into the
property room."

In an addendum to Williams' statement, written in October, the
detective said he told DEA agents during an interview that Cecil or
Cecil's cousin would pay Williams for his role in the deal.

"I remember saying something to the affect (sic) of, 'shut up talking
to me I don't what(sic)a dime or I ain't taking a dime,' " Williams
wrote in his report.

Metro police officials would not say on Wednesday why it took two
years to investigate the matter or precisely when they learned of the
allegations.

After discussing the incident for a few moments yesterday, Cecil
stopped the interview and said he would call a reporter back in a few
minutes. Instead, his attorney, Rich McGee of Nashville, returned the
call and said Cecil would not be available for further comment.

"He's not been charged. That's the only statement I care to make."

Ernest Cecil has run afoul of his Metro supervisors in the past. In
December 2004, he and another officer were stripped of police powers
and criminally charged after they entered Hurricanes, formerly a
Second Avenue nightclub, and illegally drank alcohol while carrying guns.

The officers were cleared in court, but an internal Metro police
investigation is continuing, department officials said.

His cousin, Corey Cecil, was arrested in September by Metro officers
who said he "took possession of a car that contained 3 kilos of cocaine."

Davidson County District Attorney General Torry Johnson said on
Wednesday that his office dropped the charge so that federal
prosecutors could take over the case. A plea hearing in that case is
set for today.

Williams will remain on paid leave until the end of the federal
investigation, Aaron said.

"This is a unique situation in that the Police Department cannot and
won't do anything as far as any administrative action against
Williams that could potentially jeopardize what we believe to be the
continuing investigation by the United States government."