Former Arkansas State Police Lt. Sedrick Reed and his cousin Lamont Johnson were formally indicted Wednesday on federal charges in the theft and reselling of cocaine and heroin from the police evidence room that Reed supervised.
The two could face prison sentences of 10 years to life on the charges.
Reed, 43, and Johnson, 45, both of Little Rock, were arrested last month on a federal criminal complaint, which is used to detain suspects until a federal grand jury can review potential charges against them. Reed, a 17-year veteran, was fired on July 18, the day FBI agents executed a search warrant on his and Johnson’s homes and arrested both men.
In the complaint, as well as in the indictment the grand jury handed up Wednesday, the two are accused of conspiring to resell drugs that were kept in the property room at state police headquarters after being confiscated during traffic stops. The drugs were initially stored in the property room to be used as evidence at trial, and they disappeared while awaiting destruction after the criminal cases to which they were linked had been adjudicated.
Both men have entered innocent pleas. They remain in custody after a July 23 hearing in which U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Thomas Ray heard an FBI agent testify that agents found some of the stolen drugs, as well as stolen guns and large amounts of cash, in the cousins’ homes. Agents also reported finding remnants of ripped-open evidence bags with state Crime Laboratory markings in a storage room in Reed’s backyard.
According to a news release from Chris Thyer, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, the formal charges filed Wednesday against both men include drug conspiracy, which is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life behind bars, as well as cocaine distribution, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Both men also face a charge of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
In addition, Reed faces separate charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of heroin with the intent to distribute, each of which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison. Johnson faces separate charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a defaced firearm, which are punishable by up to 10 years and five years, respectively.
Included in the indictment are forfeiture allegations through which the government hopes to keep $30,073 in cash seized from Reed and his home, and $57,595 in cash seized at Johnson’s home.
The cousins, who grew up as brothers in the same household, were arrested in an investigation dubbed “Operation Diverted Justice,” which was conducted by the FBI’s Ark-Trust Public Corruption Task Force, with assistance from the Little Rock Police Department.
Both will be arraigned on the formal charges sometime this month before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Young.
At a detention hearing last month, Ray found by clear and convincing evidence that Reed presents a danger to the community if released. He also found by a preponderance of the evidence that Reed presents a risk of flight. As a result, he ordered Reed detained until trial, though a trial date won’t be set until after the men’s arraignment.
After an FBI agent, Mike Lowe, testified about the allegations behind the charges, Johnson dropped his request to go free until trial, reserving his right to seek a detention hearing at a later date.
Lowe told the judge that agents found more than 2.2 pounds of cocaine and 6 to 7 ounces of heroin in a shoebox in Reed’s bedroom closet, and another trooper’s missing gun in a fanny pack in one of Reed’s five cars. In the storage building at Reed’s house at 8303 Winterwood Drive, Lowe testified, agents found a suitcase full of torn evidence wrappers. The wrappers’ writing indicated they had contained cocaine and heroin that had been seized by other troopers during traffic stops on state highways and then had been tested by the Crime Lab before being stored in the property room, he said.
In one of those traffic stops, which occurred in 2009 or 2010, troopers seized 22 pounds of cocaine. In the other case, he said, 4.4 pounds of cocaine and 35 pounds of heroin were seized.
Lowe also testified that agents found $13,000 in the backs of framed pictures on Reed’s living-room wall. He said agents searching Johnson’s home at 4406 Arehart Drive found the cash in the attic, as well as two guns, one of which had been reported stolen from a North Little Rock home and the other that had its serial number scraped off.
The FBI agent testified that a man who had been purchasing cocaine from Johnson since the summer of 2012 agreed to cooperate with the FBI and made five monitored purchases of cocaine from him in June and July. Lowe said the informant bought cocaine from Johnson on an almost weekly basis between June and December 2012.
The agent said another informant reported that Reed said he had removed four “trash guns” from the property room and sold them for $250.
In addition, Lowe testified that Reed reimbursed the man $15,000 of a $30,000 cocaine purchase after the informant was unable to resell it because it was of low quality and threatened to report Reed to his captain.
Lowe told the judge that among the other people who cooperated with FBI agents in gathering information about Reed was a woman who’d had a relationship with him and was described in court documents only as “the paramour.”
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 08/08/2013