LITTLE ROCK — Two Little Rock police officers accused of escorting shipments of marijuana through the city remained on paid leave and in jail Friday as a judge set a hearing for June 4 to determine whether he will set bail that would allow their release pending a trial.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney also tentatively appointed attorneys to represent Mark Jones and Randall Robinson, but saidhe didn’t yet know if the men would qualify for court-paid attorneys beyond their initial appearances.
Jones, 45, and Robinson, 38, who are half brothers, were arrested Thursday andaccused of accepting payments totaling $14,000 for protecting drug deliveries while armed, in uniform and driving marked patrol cars.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, a confidential informant paid Jones $2,000 per trip for escorting two shipments of marijuana through Little Rock on Jan. 12 and Jan. 31.
On March 22, the two officers were each paid $5,000 for providing security for a 1,000-pound delivery of “pharmaceutical grade” marijuana, the affidavit says.
Although both officers were on duty and in their patrol cars on that day, Robinson did not respond to a call for all officers to respond to a shooting in west Little Rock, the affidavit says. The video cameras on patrol cars that did respond captured footage of Robinson’s car heading in the opposite direction, following a vehicle carrying drugs, the affidavit says.
The officers were placed on administrative leave with pay on Thursday, pending the results of an ongoing internalinvestigation, Lt. Terry Hastings, a Little Rock Police Department spokesman, said.
The department considers placing an officer on leave without pay to be a disciplinary measure that can’t be taken until an investigation is finished, he said.
Department officials will “start moving that way pretty quick to speed up the process, since they are arrested and charged with a federal crime,” Hastings said.
He declined to comment on the criminal investigation.
In back-to-back hearings Friday, Jones and Robinson wore navy blue shirts and pants from the Pulaski County jail and sat at a counsel table alongside their attorneys in front of a crowded gallery of spectators.
Most of the spectators appeared to be friends and family members of the officers, and some could be heard sobbing.
As each defendant approached a courtroom lectern with his attorney, Kearney read aloud the charges: conspiracy to aid and abet the possession with intent to distribute more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, attempt to aid and abet the possession with intent to distribute more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
Both officers asked that Kearney appoint attorneys to represent them, but after briefly reviewing each man’s financial affidavit, the judge said he didn’t know yet if either qualified.
He noted that Jones makes roughly $60,000 a year and has a wife and four children to support. The judge agreed to “provisionally” appoint defense attorney Ron Davis of Little Rock to represent Jones, at Jones’ request.
Kearney said that according to Robinson’s financial affidavit, he has an income of roughly $50,000 a year and supports a wife and three children. The judge appointed defense attorney Rick Holiman of Little Rock to represent Robinson for the time being.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner objected to the men’s release, saying the government wants both to remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
She said the government was prepared to proceed with a detention hearing Friday, but Davis said, “My client understands he is entitled to a hearing, but would rather be more prepared,” prompting the judge to delay the hearing until June 4.
The officers will remain in custody until the hearing, at which time their attorneys will try to present evidence to show that if they are released until trial, they won’t pose a flight risk or a risk of danger to the community.
Neither defendant entered a plea Thursday, and eachspoke only briefly to the judge in response to questions.
Since each man was arrested on a criminal complaint, each will have to face a federal grand jury, whose members will decide whether to indict them when the panel meets again starting June 5.
Hastings said both officers worked the department’s morning and early afternoon shift in the northwest patrol division.
Jones began working at the department in June 1987, and Robinson started in March 1999.
According to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives, both officers had received the Police Department’s Life Saving Award for their work responding to car accidents.
Robinson was credited with saving a woman’s life after a wreck in June 2003.
Jones, along with Arkansas Highway Police officer James “Buckie” Thomas, was recognized for his work in responding to an accident at East Sixth Street and Pepper Avenue in Little Rock on Oct. 3, 1996.
According to the newspaper account of the award, Jones used a fire extinguisher to douse a fire while Thomas pulled a woman from the car. Both officers then carried a second woman to safety.
“While Providence placed Jones and Thomas in this location, their teamwork and unselfish actions to help the injured while disregarding the risks to their own personal safety are in the highest traditions of police work,” then-Police Chief Louie Caudell wrote in a commendation letter.
Hastings said he didn’t have information about whether Jones or Robinson had been disciplined in the past. The Police Department did not respond Friday to a state Freedom of Information Act requesting records from Jones’ and Robinson’s personnel files.
The arrests came 15 months after an FBI and North Little Rock police investigation led to an indictment accusing another Little Rock officer, Jason Gilbert, of conspiring with others to rob an armored-car company in Little Rock.
Witnesses at a trial last year testified that Gilbert listened to his police radio, ready to warn his collaborators of any trouble, during an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Arkansas Armored Car Service’s main offices in Little Rock in 2005.
Convicted in the conspiracy, Gilbert was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes in March to 3 1/2 years in prison.
Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch and Sean Beherec of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/26/2012