POLICE SAY OFFICIAL PUT DRUGS IN LOCKER

SOUTH HAVEN -- Assistant South Haven High School Principal Pat Conroy
told police he placed marijuana in the locker of a student he suspected
was a drug dealer last year, but the plan to get the boy expelled didn't
work because the city's police drug dog failed to find the contraband
during a school search.

After Conroy told South Haven police the planted evidence story
earlier this month, police raided his high school office Feb. 9 and
found a drawer full of numerous packets of marijuana and assorted
pills, according to a police report. The district placed Conroy on
paid administrative leave that day, according to Superintendent Dave
Myers, who read a statement at Wednesday night's school board meeting
about Conroy's suspension.

Now Conroy is facing a potential charge of possession of marijuana,
still under review by the Van Buren County prosecutor's office.

Conroy told police he had been collecting the drugs, which he said had
been confiscated from students, ever since he came to the high school
as assistant principal in August 1999. He claimed he kept the drugs in
his office so he could bring them to school board student expulsion
hearings to show as evidence if necessary.

But school board President Ed Bocock, who has been on the board since
Conroy joined the district staff, said he never saw drugs displayed at
any student expulsion hearing he attended. "I don't recall seeing
that," Bocock said. "Those drugs are supposed to be given to the police."

Meanwhile, the school board may set a special meeting soon to consider
additional disciplinary action against Conroy, Bocock said Thursday
night.

Herald-Palladium attempts to telephone Conroy at home on Wednesday and
Thursday were unsuccessful.

Conroy told police he hatched the scheme to plant the marijuana in the
male student's locker early last year, after several locker searches
by the South Haven Police Department's drug dog Herbie turned up no
drugs at the school. The boy's name was blacked out in the copy of the
police report that The Herald-Palladium obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act.

Conroy told police he was certain the student was a drug dealer, and
he thought planting the pot in his locker prior to a spring 2003
search would help him get expelled. But Herbie did not detect the
marijuana in the locker during that search, so Conroy told police he
brought it back to his office.

The police report also states Conroy told officers several times that
he knew what he did was unethical.

"He stated he had 'lost his perspective' and had done something
'stupid, arrogant and unethical,'" according to the police report by
Deputy Police Chief Tom Martin. However, he stressed to police that he
only planted evidence once.

Conroy also told police that he sometimes pursued criminal complaints
when drugs were seized from students at the school, but other times
did not. He also told police he doesn't use drugs.

South Haven Police Chief Rod Somerlott said earlier that when drugs
are confiscated from a student, by law police must be contacted
immediately to pick up and dispose of the illegal substances.