DEPUTY REFUSES DRUG TEST, IS FIRED

DeSoto Officer Reported Being Stabbed Last Week

A DeSoto County deputy who said he was stabbed outside his home last week
was fired Wednesday after he refused to take a drug test.

Patrolman Mike Thomas, 28, failed to follow a lawful order, said Cmdr. Mark
Blackson of the DeSoto Sheriff's Department.

The investigation of the case has been turned over to the Internal Affairs
Department.

Thomas told investigators a man wearing dark clothes and a ski mask
attacked him when he went outside to lock a car at around 11:30 p.m. June 11.

Thomas said that during the struggle, he was stabbed with a syringe and
another object. He suffered what officers called a superficial cut to his
upper left arm. The syringe was jammed into his upper left shoulder, he said.

Officers haven't found the knife. Blackson said the wound was about a
quarter-inch deep.

A urinalysis after the alleged attack found evidence of cocaine and two
prescription drugs, Lortab and Xanax, in the deputy's system.

Thomas said the cocaine was from the syringe. Blackson said Thomas had
prescriptions for the other two drugs.

Lortab is a painkiller, and Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication.

Thomas returned to his patrol duties Friday after two days of convalescent
leave.

The deputy lives off Goodman Road west of Horn Lake, but the sheriff's
department would not say where Wednesday, citing the continuing
investigation. His phone number isn't listed.

Deputies sent the syringe to the state crime laboratory for analysis, but
no report on the tests was available Wednesday.

Thomas has 10 days to file an appeal of his dismissal, said Cmdr. Jim Dunn,
commander of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Further action in the criminal investigation of the incident is unlikely
until the crime lab report is filed, he said.

No arrests have been made in the case and no suspects have been identified.

Thomas had been assigned to the patrol division as a motorcycle officer.
Earlier in his career, he worked with DeSoto County's Metro Narcotics Unit.

Initially, Cmdr. John Magness suggested revenge might be the motive for the
attack.

County records showed Thomas was being paid $25,848 a year as a patrolman.