LITTLE ROCK — Former Marvell police officer Robert Wahls was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for extortion and money laundering in connection with an FBI investigation into drug trafficking and public corruption in the Arkansas Delta.
Wahls, 43, was one of five law-enforcement officers charged in the two-year federal probe.
Wahls negotiated the sentence when he pleaded guilty Jan. 26 to the two charges, admitting that on Sept. 21, 2011, he met with a man posing as a drug trafficker to discuss the man’s request for a police escort for a coming drug transport through Marvell in northern Phillips County.
The confidential informant, working with the FBI, had called the Police Department asking specifically for Wahls, telling Wahls he planned to travel from Louisiana to Arkansas with a large quantity of illegal drugs.
Wahls admitted that five days later, as he and the man had agreed, he waited in his patrol car on the eastern edge of Marvell. When the man drove up, Wahls followed his vehicle through town, protecting the man from being stopped by other officers. Then, unaware that FBI agents were watching, he collected $500 cash as payment from the informant.
The money-laundering charge was for taking what he believed to be drug-trafficking proceeds.
In return for his guilty pleas to those two charges, four other charges he faced were dropped. They were also for extortion and money laundering.
One of the conditions of Wahls’ plea was that he never work in law enforcement again.
During the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Eric Gribble of Little Rock noted that Wahls had worked for the Helena-West Helena Police Department from 2001 through 2004. Gribble said Wahls had just started working there again, and in fact was only four days into the new job, when he was arrested in the corruption investigation.
Facing U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson at a courtroom lectern, Wahls said he was “deeply hurt and sorry for bringing this humiliation and shame on my family.”
He also said, “It’s not about me. My fiancee, my children — I’ve broken their trust with the things I’ve done.”
Wilson noted that he had received three letters from supporters of Wahls, including a Baptist preacher, Wahls’ ex-wife and his brother.
“These were good letters and I appreciate getting them,” Wilson said.
Because Wilson agreed to impose the sentence that Gribble and Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters had negotiated in January, neither attorney made arguments on Wednesday.
Under federal statutes, Wahls faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.
The other four officers charged in the case alongside dozens of drug-trafficking suspects also were accused of taking bribes to escort carloads of illegal drugs or of overlooking crimes and warning drug traffickers about impending raids.
All but one of the four have pleaded guilty. They are former Helena-West Helena officer Herman Eaton Sr., 46, who was sentenced May 16 to 16 months in prison; Robert “Bam Bam” Rogers, 36, of Lexa, who worked at the Helena-West Helena Police Department and the Phillips County sheriff’s office, and is scheduled for sentencing on June 26; and Winston Dean Jackson, 44, a former Phillips County sheriff’s deputy, who is scheduled for sentencing on June 8.
The other officer charged, Lt. Marlene Kalb, 48, a veteran Helena-West Helena officer, has maintained her innocence and is scheduled for a jury trial beginning July 30.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/31/2012