FORMER EP POLICEMAN CLEARED OF DRUG CHARGES

PEKIN - A former East Peoria police officer was cleared Wednesday of
charges that he possessed and delivered drugs at a house he was in
two years ago.

"I'm extremely relieved," Ronald Beeney, an 11-year officer with the
department, said outside the Tazewell County Courthouse. "I feel like
I can breathe again."

A jury deliberated three hours before finding Beeney not guilty on
three counts of possessing a controlled substance, one count of
possessing it with intent to deliver and one count of possessing marijuana.

"This has affected dozens of people around me," Beeney said. "I'm
glad I can put this behind me." Beeney, 37, who lives in Springfield
and works with the Salvation Army, said he has been contacted
byseveral police chiefs in that area and might resume his
law-enforcement career.

He does not plan to return to the East Peoria Police Department,
where he had been a patrol officer until he was arrested Sept. 26,
2003, during a police raid at 100 Ridge Lane. That home was owned by
his former girlfriend, Julie Harris.

At the time, Harris was a member of the Police Department's auxiliary
force. She faces the same charges as Beeney did and is due into court
next month.

Agents with the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group (MEG) raided
the house and found an assortment of illegal drugs, including nearly
30 grams of cocaine, crack pipes, large amounts of marijuana, several
tablets of Ecstasy and hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms.

Beeney said when he arrived at the house on Sept. 25, 2003, there
were about 10 people inside he did not know. He took off his police
uniform in a computer room, had about 10 beers with the guests and
went to bed around midnight.

Beeney told the jury Wednesday he did not see any of the drugs nor
did he witness drug use while he was staying overnight at the house.

He also said in his 13-year career as a police officer, he only
encountered cocaine on one or two occasions during arrests he made.

"When you look at this case from start to finish, if reasonable doubt
exists (that Beeney possessed drugs), then you have to throw my
client a bone," Beeney's attorney, Brian Addy, said. "It doesn't mean
you pin a badge on him."

On Tuesday, jurors watched a videotape taken by MEG agents that
showed two briefcases on the bed where Beeney had slept. Inside them
were large amounts of drugs, drug equipment and money. In the
computer room was drug equipment near where Beeney had left his
uniform, the video showed.

Addy said the briefcases could have been planted by someone after
Beeney left the house and went to the Police Department.

A MEG agent testified Tuesday that the raid occurred after an
informant told authorities he could purchase cocaine through an
intermediary who had connections with an East Peoria police officer.

Addy also questioned Beeney's residency. At the time, Beeney was
living on State Street in Pekin and did not receive any mail in East
Peoria, where Harris was living.

Beeney said he once lived at the Ridge Lane address but was only a
visitor since March 2003, when he and Harris ended their relationship.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Green said Beeney's defense made
no sense and the jury should have questioned his credibility.

"He flat-out lied," Green said during closing arguments about
Beeney's statements that he never saw anything illegal inside the
house. "What is reasonable is that he knew full well what he and
Julie Harris were involved with. They were doing drugs long before
Sept. 25, (2003)."