Sedrick Reed, the former Arkansas State Police lieutenant who in July admitted to stealing seized drugs from the agency's property room to sell on the streets, was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years in federal prison.
Reed, 44, supervised the property room and had worked his way to the rank of lieutenant over 18 years when he was arrested in July 2013, along with his cousin, after FBI agents searched both men's Little Rock homes.
The searches uncovered remnants of drugs -- marijuana, cocaine and heroin -- that agents determined had been confiscated in traffic stops and raids, tested at the state Crime Laboratory, and stored for possible use in forthcoming trials. They also found stolen guns and large amounts of cash.
The drugs that Reed eventually admitted taking, and in some cases replacing on the property room's shelves with packages of hay or wrapped blocks, were all set to be destroyed because the cases involving them had been resolved.
On July 30, a year after he was arrested and ordered detained until trial, Reed admitted to U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson that he had stolen the contraband to sell it to criminals and that he had made more than $200,000 off those sales over seven years.
In return for his guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, four other charges he faced in a scheduled October jury trial were dropped. The cousin with whom he was arrested, Lamont Johnson, 46, remains committed to a psychiatric facility after being found incompetent to stand trial.
At his sentencing Thursday before Wilson, Reed faced 10 years to life under federal statutes, while federal sentencing guidelines recommended 135 to 168 months, or 120 to 135 months if an amendment to the guidelines is considered. The amendment, which has been approved and is about to be enacted, lowers penalty ranges for certain crimes, based on drug amounts involved, across the country. Some judges are already employing it.
Reed, sitting next to defense attorney John Collins of Little Rock, wore a white T-shirt and khaki pants. Although Wilson offered him a chance to make a statement, he declined, letting Collins speak for him.
Collins, a former police officer himself, described how Reed had "led a very good life, until recently." He cited Reed's service in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 through 1996, during which time he was awarded a national service medal and two good-conduct medals, and attained the rank of sergeant.
When he left the service and became a state trooper, he was the speaker of his graduating class and was elected the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Black Trooper's Coalition, Collins said. In 2001, Reed started a boy's camp for troubled youth.
"He did take a turn, and he broke the law ... but for a good number of years, Sedrick Reed was a good member of society," said Collins, arguing for the minimum sentence of 10 years.
"His time in prison is not going to be like others' time in prison," Collins said, referring to the fact that former police officers are often housed separately from the general population for their own protection.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters argued that Reed's case involved a large amount of drugs, including 11 to 33 pounds of cocaine, as well as guns and a conspiracy.
"Drugs plague our community," Peters said.
She said that while Reed may have once tried to help troubled youth, "children were negatively impacted by these drugs [that Reed stole] being on the street."
While Reed's position of authority played a role in the penalty range suggested for him under federal sentencing guidelines, Peters said his sentence also needed to reflect that "the public expects law enforcement officers to behave honorably," and that he betrayed the public trust.
Reed's actions undermined the work of fellow law enforcement officers, she said, noting that "they worked so hard to get it [the illegal drugs] off the streets. He was turning around and putting it back on the streets."
"It affects the good officers' reputations and makes it hard for them to do their jobs," Peters said.
Wilson called it "tragic" that a man with good intentions "turned and went down the wrong road." He said deterring others was "crucially important" in determining Reed's sentence.
"It's my impression that the people of Arkansas have a great admiration for the men in blue," Wilson said.
He noted that the state police, in particular, have long had a reputation for excellence, adding, "I think the state police will survive this and remain in high public esteem."
In sentencing Reed to 135 months in prison -- a number that falls within the guidelines whether the amendment applies or not -- Wilson said he would recommend to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that the former trooper be housed in a medical facility, such as one in Springdale, Mo., because of health problems that include diabetes, hypertension and post-traumatic stress disorder, the latter stemming from his overseas military service.
Although Reed wasn't fined, he has agreed to forfeit the contents of four bank accounts and proceeds from the sale of two houses in Little Rock and one house in Prescott, as well as four guns, four vehicles and $30,000 in cash to the government. Three of the bank accounts are also in the name of his ex-wife, Felice Reed, who attended his sentencing.
In July, Sedrick Reed admitted that from 2006 through July 2013, he stole the seized drugs from the property room he supervised to give to others to sell. He also admitted diverting marijuana seized in a 2006 traffic stop from ever reaching the evidence room. He confessed that he began supplying Johnson with the stolen cocaine beginning in 2012.
During the 2013 FBI raid of Reed's house at 8303 Winterwood Drive, agents reported finding cocaine and heroin in a shoe box in his bedroom closet, another trooper's missing handgun in one of Reed's five cars, a suitcase full of ripped-open evidence wrappers from the state Crime Lab in an outside storage building, and $13,000 in cash hidden in the backs of framed pictures on Reed's living room walls.
During the simultaneous raid of Johnson's house at 4406 Arehart Drive, FBI agents reported finding nearly $58,000 in cash in the attic and two guns, one of which had been reported stolen and the other with a scraped-off serial number.
In a 2001 racial discrimination lawsuit against state police, Reed complained that he was passed over repeatedly for promotions because he is black. He dropped the suit four years later in exchange for a salary increase to $50,000 and a $7,651 payment, according to court records.
Metro on 10/31/2014