POLICE DISCOVER DRUG CACHE IN EP OFFICER'S HOME

MEG Probe Yields Possession Charges

EAST PEORIA - While Ron Beeney thought he was building on his 11-year
career as a city police officer, drug investigators built a case that
culminated Friday in the discovery of a large cache of illegal drugs and
his arrest.

Beeney, 36, and Julie Lynn Harris, 28, a member of the Police Department's
auxiliary force, were jailed within hours after police found drugs
including cocaine and anabolic steroids at their listed residence at 100
Ridge Lane, police Chief Ed Papis said Saturday.

The discovery prompted Papis to promise "every effort to ensure this will
never happen again" among his department's officers.

Beeney and Harris are scheduled to appear later today before a Tazewell
County judge, who will set bond on charges of possessing a controlled
substance against both and an additional count of possession with intent to
deliver against Harris. They've remained jailed since Friday.

Papis said officers from the Multi-County Drug Enforcement Group, after an
"extensive" investigation with his department's help, found drugs including
cocaine, steroids, marijuana and ecstasy in the couple's home in their
mid-morning search.

He declined to say how much was found, and Tazewell County State's Attorney
Stewart Umholtz was unavailable for comment Saturday. Area MEG Director
Larry Hawkins also declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

An authority familiar with it, however, said police found 33 grams of
cocaine, 30 grams of marijuana, 3 grams of mushrooms, three tablets of
Ecstasy and several containers of illegal steroids. The authority, who
asked not to be named, did not specify whether the mushrooms allegedly
contained the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin.

Papis also declined to say how long Beeney and Harris had been under
investigation. Beeney, who was about to begin his 12th year with the
department, had been assigned to second-shift patrol.

He resigned immediately after the MEG agent's 10:30 a.m. raid, Papis said.
Harris' position with the auxiliary force, which provides traffic and crowd
control among other functions for the department, was terminated Friday, he
said.

The couple's arrest came as no surprise to one nearby Ridge Lane neighbor,
who recalled "wild parties thrown (at their house) late at night."

"There were wild things going over there that we couldn't figure out what
it was," said the neighbor, who asked not to be named. Another, who also
asked not to be named, spoke of "all the cars parked all night" near the
house along the otherwise quiet street.

Beeney had lived there about two years "at the most," that neighbor said.
"I knew him just enough to wave to him. He seemed like a very nice man.
It's such a shame he's ruined his career."