In one of the most shocking cases of badge abuse ever exposed, the Alabama Justice Project revealed that a ring of corrupt cops in the Dothan Police Department planted drugs and guns on hundreds of young black men for over a decade, in most cases resulting in their imprisonment. Their actions were aided by supervisors and covered up by the district attorney.
All of the cops were members of a racist Neoconfederate organization. Many of those involved have been promoted and now hold high positions in law enforcement, with two attending the FBI academy and one holding a position as adjunct professor at Troy University’s Criminal Justice Program.
While the corrupt cops advanced their careers, the victims of their scheme were sentenced to prison and some still languish there today. It is believed that over 1,000 men were wrongfully convicted from planted drugs and weapons, while the district attorney’s office raked in millions of dollars from court fees and the pre-trial diversion program.
In 1998, several honorable officers in the Dothan PD witnessed their colleagues’ criminal behavior and tried to expose them, managing to initiate an internal investigation. However, the investigation was covered up by superiors and the district attorney. Since that time, awareness of police brutality and corruption has grown exponentially, and the whistleblowers believe there is now a better chance at serving justice and freeing those wrongfully imprisoned.
According to the Henry County Report,
The group of officers requested they be granted anonymity, and shared hundreds of files from the Internal Affairs Division. They reveal a pattern of criminal behavior from within the highest levels of the Dothan Police Department and the district attorney’s office in the 20th Judicial District of Alabama. Multiple current and former officers have agreed to testify if United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch appoints a special prosecutor from outside the state of Alabama, or before a Congressional hearing. The officers believe that there are currently nearly a thousand wrongful convictions resulting in felonies from the 20th Judicial District that are tied to planted drugs and weapons and question whether a system that allows this can be allowed to continue to operate.
A letter detailing the criminal behavior was put on the desk of Dothan City Commissioner Don Clement, and the incriminating documents are being shared with attorneys at the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Several officers have agreed to testify if the attorney general appoints a special prosecutor or if a Congressional hearing is initiated.
Notable names in the cabal of criminal cops include Michael Magrino, now an investigator for Alabama’s Indigent Defense Fund, Carlton “Bubba” Ott, now commander of the criminal investigation division, Steve Parrish, current chief of the Dothan PD, and Andy Hughes, current director of Homeland Security for Alabama.
Magrino alone is responsible for at least 50 questionable prosecutions. The others listed above were aware of the internal investigation finding clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but worked to hide the findings. What’s more, they forced out those in the department who tried to speak out about what was happening.
John White, police chief at the time, told senior officers to ignore complaints from black victims that drugs and weapons were being planted. District Attorney Doug Valeska ignored allegations by other officers that evidence was planted and kept the information from defense attorneys. Each of these instances is considered a felony.
“Internal Affairs Sergeant, Keith Gray, recommended that Magrino be immediately discharged and prosecuted, all of his previous cases reopened for investigation, and the judges and attorneys of those convicted be immediately notified. Gray believed there were hundreds of false arrests in the system by the group of officers, historically over a thousand.
However, at this point, our sources and the documents confirm the investigation was shut down, and the files ordered “buried” by Police Chief, John White, and District Attorney, Doug Valeska.”
According to department and state policy, federal law enforcement authorities should have been notified of the results of the internal investigation, but that never happened. Instead, the planting of drugs and guns on innocent victims continued for years.
Chief John White has issued a series of false statements over the years which should have gotten him prosecuted. He repeated a lie in a recent letter sent to Dothan City Manager Jerry Gwaltney, saying
“At no time previous, during or since, has any individual made an allegation that this officer planted or manufactured evidence or testimony in any case.”
The disturbing actions of these criminal cops and their superiors shows how morally bankrupt humans can use the power of the state to destroy the lives of innocent people. But the news is made a little less painful by the noble actions of other cops, who cannot stand by as this kind of abuse goes on.
Now we can only hope that justice is brought to those deserving, and that freedom is given to those still suffering in jail.
Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com
Us poor Sovereign Citizens get a really bad rap for not obeying the laws, telling the law to drop dead and basically going around and doing whatever we want…like politicians if you will…We see this type of thing all of the time and if you look around this type of thing happens everywhere to differing degrees.
Take your time and look around. You may find you have more in common with us than you do with them and yes it is a contest and you will see that if you continue looking as well.
And the SPLC pulled that article because it was a hoax. I would reconsider this article. Seems the SPLC lied.
Glad y’all posted this article. People accuse libertarian press of being racist. But it is more individualistic than collectivist.
When you become honest with yourself and strip away all the PC and
BS, you find all these things from racism to terrorism, and even wealth
inequality are coming from one thing, and one thing only.
The American peoples denial and cowardice to do anything about the massive corruption with people in authority.
The elephant in the room.
All of this is coming from our silence and ignorance of the obvious criminals in power.
We make excuses for them, and try to rationalize it somehow, and not really for their sake but to justify our own inaction.
We have allowed ourselves to become irresponsible as healthy and sane citizens and are now quite dysfunctional.
It amazes me how people can carry on complaining about the self induced
terror they are themselves are creating by blaming everything else
except the real culprit…US
None of this could happen if we did the right thing and said NO and MEANT it.
Not lip service. You must follow up on your decision and do something about it.
I’ll give an example that will help people understand.
This situation is much like raising children. Have you seen the children of
today? Ranging from teen to 30 something we have the most spoiled self
serving entitled brats that have ever walked the planet.
And this is because their parents coddled them and spoiled them while never
providing any real guidance, discipline. Just like we are shirking our
responsibilities with the corruption in authority.
Just like”little johnny is going through a stage and we must treat him like a fragile
snowflake” he grows up thinking the world owes him. We have done the same
with the criminals in authority, and when irresponsible adults get away
with this kind of abuse of power it only gets worse. If there are no
consequences for their bad and many times illegal actions then what good
are our laws providing?
We can make all kinds of excuses and
blame someone or something else, but this all boils down to us not
holding the right people accountable and responsible for their bad
actions.
As long as we are derelict in our civic duties to hold
them responsible and accountable they will be derelict in their duty of
legality and morality
This will only stop until we do what is right.
We purposely created laws for just this reason, now is the time to apply them.
If you are too scared to do this then you have no right to say anything about it.You’re doing it to yourself
Damn. Someone must have hijacked CS’s name, because I find myself agreeing with virtually everything you wrote. WTF?
Planting drugs on a guy might be old school – all they have to do now is download a bunch of criminal files to your computer – make anyone look like scum.
Investigating (not hard folks, follow the links)…The Alabama Justice Project is the brainchild of a photojournalist by the name of Jon B Caroll who self-publishes something called the Herny County Report. AJP was incorprated in Deleware in 2014 but I cannot find it in the 501 registry. The article is his linking his sister sites as the sources. The internet is full of parroting reports such as the one above, but as yet I find no independent confirmation of the allegations.
According to Dotan Police Chief Steven Parrish, the allegations of the blogger (Jon Caroll) are untrue, reporting that (and through independent inquiry) the last incident of misconduct of this nature occured in the 1990s involving the mishandling of evidence – one incident, which was dealt with at the time (the officer involved no longer in the employment of Dothan PD. A full statement and story responding to the allegations can be found at KLTV, WTVM, WSFA.