FBI CHECKS DRUG TASK FORCE FOR SIGNS OF CASH SKIMMING

Federal law enforcement officials are looking into whether interstate drug
interdiction officers in Crittenden County and West Memphis have skimmed
cash seized from couriers along the lucrative "money route" through the
Mid-South crossroads.

West Memphis police personnel records indicate the FBI was investigating
drug interdiction operations on the interstate highways well before three
West Memphis drug enforcement officers were fired last year.

Crittenden County interstates have been the source of more than $5.4
million in cash seized from suspected drug couriers in the past 2 years,
records show. One focus of the probe is whether officers helped themselves
to some of that money.

Federal officials would not confirm whether a Little Rock grand jury
investigation is under way. But West Memphis Police Chief Robert H. Paudert
says he assisted in the federal probe after going to the FBI with his
suspicions more than a year ago. Records indicate he wanted to know whether
officers had planted evidence in order to make some cases.

And Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby says he's aware some of his
deputies are under suspicion, but he won't say more than that.

Indeed, suspicion about misuse of the drug war tactic that's supposed to
drain the profits from illegal drug dealing is an old story in Crittenden
County. An Arkansas State Police investigation in the early 1990s turned up
some wrongdoing involving seized evidence and sloppy record-keeping
involving an earlier version of Crittenden County's drug task force. At the
time, a few wrists were slapped, including those of two of the three
recently fired West Memphis police officers and a sheriff's deputy still
working the interstates.

But Pros. Atty. Brent Davis elected not to file charges in 1993, records
indicate. During a lengthy county audit of the old task force - which was
composed of officers from Marion, West Memphis and the sheriff's department
- - the sheriff and West Memphis police went their separate ways and now work
the highways independently.

Almost a decade later, federal authorities are now looking closely into the
highway interdiction effort that fuels the legal forfeiture of cash, guns
and cars. In some cases, they're looking at the lifestyles and purchases of
drug officers whose salaries are in the low $30,000 range.

The interstate turkey shoot has always been lucrative. Cops say that if you
want to find drugs, stop the suspicious eastbound traffic. If you're
looking for money, check for Texas or California plates heading home.

Almost every asset forfeiture case in Circuit Court in Crittenden County
involves couriers with Spanish surnames who have signed prepared forms
disavowing knowledge of the contraband police found in their searches.

Because they say they don't know where the money came from, the drivers are
often given only traffic citations for whatever offense was the pretext for
the stop, and they're on their way, leaving the cash behind. In Crittenden
County, which produces the lion's share of seized cash for the state,
arrests and convictions of the cash couriers for drug offenses are
secondary, if pursued at all.

As West Memphis Police Insp. James F. Sudbury said in his pre-termination
interview with Mayor Bill Johnson last October: "Our main objective has
been to put money in the bank. And I was doing that as best I could."

Court files in Marion indicate that, in the past 13 months, Dep. Pros.
Atty. James C. Hale III has filed lawsuits seeking to forfeit 88
automobiles, a few firearms and $504,759 in cash to the Crittenden County
Prosecuting Attorney's Office. The automobiles, including tractor rigs,
fancy sports cars and luxury SUVs, are used in undercover work or sold at
auction.

Crittenden County received $551,211 in forfeiture funds last year, said
county treasurer Larry Miller. The figure was higher than normal, Miller
said, because several long-running cases were resolved last year.

Crittenden County has been responsible for a little more than half - $5.43
million out of $10.82 million - of the cash seized statewide since January
2000.

In one high-profile 1999 case that went to the Arkansas Supreme Court,
lawyers for the state Highway and Transportation Department fought local
prosecutors over $3.1 million seized at a Crittenden County weigh station.

The availability of that kind of money has always raised suspicions.

Paudert said officers came to him with their concerns shortly after he
became police chief in 1999. Paudert is the former head of Metro Narcotics
under the late Shelby County Sheriff Jack Owens and a former police chief
in Bartlett. He was too new to West Memphis to know whom he could trust, he
said, so he took his concerns to the FBI.

Paudert says he can't say much about those concerns except that they
involved "money missing from the interstate." He said he lent his
assistance to the federal probe when requested.

West Memphis personnel records involving the three fired officers shed some
light on that investigation.

A transcript of an interview with Sudbury quotes Paudert as saying, "As I
told others, we don't know where that investigation is going. As I told you
before, it's kind of a one-way street. They tell us what they want us to know."

An FBI sting operation involving $45,000 in counted money "seized" by West
Memphis patrolman Joseph W. Applegate on Interstate 40 last March led to
his firing, according to a transcript of a pre-termination conversation
Applegate had last August with Paudert.

Applegate's official report of the broken tail-light traffic stop, as well
as a forfeiture lawsuit on file in Marion, indicate marijuana was found
with the cash, making it subject to forfeiture under state law. But Paudert
said the FBI assured him the pickup and cash were clean and did not contain
a trace of marijuana.

"The local FBI agents and Asst. U.S. Atty. Dan Stripling have verified that
there was no marijuana residue in the bed of the truck used in this
operation," according to a Sept. 7 memo from Paudert to Mayor Johnson.

Interestingly, the forfeiture lawsuit filed by the son of longtime deputy
prosecutor James C. Hale Jr. in connection with that seizure seeks the
$45,000. But it says a different figure - $107,785 - was found in close
proximity to the marijuana that, evidently, never existed. Hale III did not
return repeated calls from the newspaper.

Applegate also gave what were apparently undercover FBI agents driving the
pickup a receipt for an undetermined amount of cash. That violated the
department's policy of counting the money and making out a receipt for the
exact amount seized.

The transcript also indicates Paudert asked Applegate if he'd ever "planted
dope" in cars he'd stopped. Applegate said he hadn't.

In October, Mayor Johnson concurred in Paudert's decision to fire
Applegate; Sudbury, then head of the department's narcotics officers; and
highway interdiction Sgt. E.A. 'Tony' Bradley. All three were accused of
failing to follow departmental policy on handling seized cash. None has
been charged with a crime.

West Memphis police officers Sudbury, Bradley and a "Sergeant Griffin" are
mentioned in a footnote to the City of West Memphis annual audit for 1996
after auditors said $5,267 of $246,900 confiscated that year never made it
to the bank. City Atty. David C. Peeples said the city's surety bond
coverage wasn't used to make up the difference because no charges were
filed concerning the loss. Then-Sgt. Shane Griffin is now a sheriff's
deputy working the interstates.

The FBI has searched the homes of both Applegate and Bradley, according to
their lawyers.

Agents also surveyed their property holdings, according to county assessor
of property Bill Eddings. Those records show Bradley, who made $34,800 a
year, owns a home valued at $159,350, two 2002 Jeeps together valued at
$43,000, a 2002 Harley Davidson motorcycle valued at $17,250 and a 1999
Camaro worth $12,550.

Applegate, who has since relocated to Oklahoma but made $30,864 as a West
Memphis patrolman, has a $21,100 Chevy Silverado and a $14,500 Harley,
along with a Mitsubishi Eclipse.

West Memphis lawyer Gerald Coleman, who represents Sudbury and Bradley,
said his clients would not talk to a reporter while the probe is under way.
Lawyer Robert M. Ford of Wynne said the same about his client, Applegate.

The federal probe evidently reaches into the Crittenden County Sheriff's
Department. Federal agents have sought both courthouse and sheriff's
department records, said Crittenden County Judge Melton Holt, whose
position is the equivalent of a county administrator.

Sheriff Busby won't talk about the probe.

Pros. Atty. Brent Davis said he is aware of an investigation going on in
Crittenden County, but has not been kept apprised of its progress. Davis
declined to pursue theft of property charges against Sudbury, Bradley,
sheriff's drug task force coordinator Mickey Thornton, deputy Barry Davis
and several others after the 1993 State Police probe in which the drug task
force officers were listed in police reports as "suspects."

In a letter, prosecutor Davis told task force directors that what he
discovered demonstrated "lack of good judgment" and probably violated
departmental policies regarding forfeited evidence, but didn't constitute
criminal activity.

Eddings said FBI officials also sought information about the real estate
and personal property of some Crittenden County deputies.

Both deputies Shane Griffin and Barry Davis still work the interstates,
Busby confirmed last week. Neither returned phone messages from the
newspaper left with Busby and Thornton.