HISTORY OF SHAME

East Chicago, Gary, Lake County: Region Cops Marred By Drug Dealing, Use
Within Ranks

Many officers within the ranks of region police departments refer to it as
a timeline of shame: cops using and selling drugs, and sometimes using
their badges as the muscle behind an illicit drug trade.

In recent decades, many dots have appeared on that timeline.

In the mid-1980s, an East Chicago police sergeant moonlighted as a body
guard for a region drug kingpin, peddling cocaine and throwing around his
muscle.

In 1986, seven East Chicago police officers failed drug screenings, testing
positive through urinalysis for illegal narcotics. All seven officers were
allowed to take a retest, passed, and were allowed to continue working
within the ranks of the department.

Later that decade and in the early 1990s, four East Chicago police officers
were convicted in a drug-dealing ring, some for selling to other officers.

In 2003, two Gary cops were convicted for their roles in furthering the
business of a region drug gang.

And earlier this month, a new dot appeared on the timeline when federal
prosecutors charged East Chicago police Officer Eligah Johnson with selling
cocaine while in uniform in his city squad car.

Johnson's case is the most recent in a series of scandals involving region
cops who have been accused of either using or selling drugs.

The Times recently explored a collection of such cases dating back to the
1980s. The following are details surrounding those cases, as contained in
past court records, police reports and accounts from The Times' archive:

Drug Muscle With A Badge

On Feb. 26, 1988, then-East Chicago police Sgt. Ronald W. Jackson arranged
by phone to sell an ounce of cocaine at a price of $1,000 to the owner of a
horse farm located southeast of Crown Point, in rural Leroy.

The owner of the horse farm, Harry "Tom" Sapp, later would testify that
Jackson frequently came to the farm with a reputed drug leader, and the
three men would use cocaine together inside the dealer's car.

But on that day in February, Sapp was the willing bait in a trap set by
federal agents to break a drug ring formed by Jackson, drug kingpin Antonio
Alanis and other East Chicago police officers.

During his trial, Jackson testified he had been an alcoholic with a drug
problem whose troubles with alcohol dated back three years.

DEA Agent Trifon Magramas also testified during a March 1988 hearing in the
case that federal agents believed Jackson had allegedly killed two men by
order of Alanis, described by authorities at the time as the leader of a
family of large-scale cocaine traffickers in Northwest Indiana. Jackson
never was charged with any slayings.

Magramas also testified that Jackson had been working as a body guard and
chauffeur for Alanis at the time of the slayings. Alanis currently is
serving a 39-year federal prison sentence for cocaine trafficking.

Jackson would be convicted on July 20, 1988, of five federal felony drug
charges, one for possessing cocaine with intent to sell it and four for
using a telephone to arrange a drug transaction. He was sentenced in that
case to 21 months in federal prison and four years of probation.

In a state case, Jackson also was convicted of dealing the drug Librium,
considered a controlled substance under Indiana law.

Despite all of his troubles with the law, Jackson works today as a
supervisor for the city of East Chicago's sanitary solids division.

Speaking from his city office Friday, Jackson declined specific comment on
any of his past drug cases.

"For what I did, I've done my time, and I'm through with all of that," said
Jackson, who still lives in the city's Harbor section.

Era Of Drug Scandals

Other officers would fall with Jackson in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
an era marked by both drug dealing and use within the East Chicago Police
Department.

East Chicago police Officers Donald Miller, Paul Muryasz and Thomas
Campbell all pleaded guilty to dealing small amounts of cocaine to fellow
officers.

In Miller's plea, the former officer admitted to using cocaine and
marijuana regularly with another officer, Tony Glass, who at the time was a
brother-in-law to Jackson. Miller said that drug use would occur while he
and Glass worked part time at the East Chicago Sanitary District.

Glass would be charged with one count of making a false statement before a
federal grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice in connection
with the case.

Also in the mid-1980s, drug scandal plagued the East Chicago Police
Department when seven police officers failed a drug-screening test, with
cocaine being detected in one policeman and marijuana in six others during
an initial urinalysis.

The police chief at the time, Augusto Flores, allowed all the officers to
take a retest, saying they could have registered "false positives" on their
initial tests.

All seven came back clean on the retest, but tempers within the department
flared when some officers said the personnel allowed a second drug test had
received preferential treatment.

Cops Dealing, Hiding Drug Money

Region police drug scandals did not end in the 1990s.

In October 2003, former Gary police Officer Luis F. Roman Jr. signed an
agreement with the U.S. attorney's office admitting to a felony charge that
he helped a member of the reputed Jay Zambrana drug gang conceal $46,894 in
cocaine revenues from law enforcement.

Roman agreed to serve a maximum penalty of three years in prison followed
by one year of supervised release, but ended up with only a four-month
sentence after cooperating with authorities.

Another former Gary cop, James Ervin, was convicted in November of that
year in connection with the same drug ring. Ervin was convicted of 11 drug
and gang-related counts for serving as a Zambrana gang hit man.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sharon J. Johnson and Susan Collins told jurors
during a 16-day trial for Ervin and Zambrana, of South Haven, that Zambrana
directed a gang of 16 alleged members who imported millions of dollars of
illicit drugs into Northwest Indiana and sold it to street-level dealers.

They said Zambrana used Ervin to extort money from competitors.

The government alleged Zambrana also ordered the nine-year veteran of the
Gary police force to execute Chicago drug dealers Raul Huartado and Gil
Nevarez on Nov. 19, 1998.

Ervin allegedly helped strangle the two with an electrical extension cord
on the stage of the Puerto Rican Beneficia Club, 400 E. 5th Ave., Gary; put
their bodies into the trunk of their 1985 Ford Crown Victoria; and set it
afire in the 7100 block of Harvard Street on Chicago's South Side.

Federal records show Ervin is scheduled to be sentenced in December of this
year.

Current Charges

Today, 16-year East Chicago patrol Officer Eligah Johnson, 45, awaits trial
on federal charges alleging he bought and sold drugs while on duty and in
uniform.

The government alleges he tipped off known drug dealers on Guthrie Street
in the city's Harbor section regarding safe times for them to peddle their
illegal wares without threat of arrest.

Johnson's alleged supplier, Veta Tyner (also known as Veta Lewis), 46 -- an
East Chicago building inspector -- of the 3900 block of Grace Lane, is
facing the same charges.

Federal authorities have said Johnson gave a written statement to
investigators after his arrest admitting to his involvement in drug
trafficking as well as his addiction to cocaine. He also told investigators
he'd been buying cocaine from Tyner for more than three years, federal
authorities have said.