COCAINE RESELLER PLEADS GUILTY

Drugs Were Evidence Detroit Cops Seized

A former civilian employee of the Detroit Police Department who
admitted stealing 220 pounds of cocaine from a police evidence room
could get his prison sentence cut in half after pleading guilty to
criminal charges.

In U.S. District Court on Thursday, John Cole Sr., 52, admitted
stealing cocaine from a department storage facility and selling it on
Detroit-area streets. The cocaine, seized in police investigations,
was kept in headquarters for use as evidence in trials.

Cole confessed to laundering his profits in schemes that included
purchasing as many as 19 properties, including a barbershop.
Prosecutors said he made about $1.3 million.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracies to distribute narcotics and to
launder money, and federal prosecutors dropped other counts against
him. His crimes could land him in prison for 30 years, but prosecutors
have agreed to recommend a 15-year sentence if Cole cooperates in
their ongoing investigation of the Police Department property room.

Judge John Corbett O'Meara is scheduled to sentence Cole on Nov.
16.

Cole was the main defendant in the case. Six people who were indicted
with him, including several relatives, already have pleaded guilty.
Two defendants are still awaiting trial: retired Detroit Police
Officer Donald Hynes, whom Cole implicated in his guilty plea, and
Ernest Myatt of Belleville, a State Police lieutenant and polygraph
operator.

Cole helped process evidence, including narcotics, in the property
room in the downtown police headquarters. He has admitted that he
conspired to secretly remove cocaine starting in 1994.

He has told authorities that Hynes began helping him steal drugs
around 1995. Hynes' role was to show Cole which bundles of cocaine
were no longer needed as evidence, Cole said. In return, Cole shared
the profits with Hynes, prosecutors said.

In place of the cocaine, Cole substituted flour, authorities
said.

Since the disclosure of Cole's crimes, police executives have said
they have established better measures in the property room, which was
chaotic for years.

Accounting procedures were poor, and for years evidence was mixed
together in overflowing metal bins.