By Matt Agorist
Bakersfield, CA — As TFTP reported in 2017, in a massive blow to justice and a nail in the coffin that is police accountability, two former cops who pleaded guilty to arresting people for drugs, stealing those drugs, and selling them for themselves, avoided jail despite their guilty pleas. As the Free Thought Project reported, former sheriff’s deputies Logan August and Derrick Penney pleaded guilty to a massive conspiracy in which they would arrest people for selling drugs only to turn around and use those drugs to enrich themselves.
These two bad cops received probation only, for their crimes.
After getting off with a wrist slap, last year August was charged — again — with 15 felony counts, including conspiracy and burglary, in connection with stealing over 400 pounds of drugs from a sheriff’s storage locker and putting them back on the street.
This recent investigation began last year and ended in August with August and Penny pleading no contest to the charges. Now, this cop is actually going to prison for betraying the community.
As KGET reports, on Thursday, August was sentenced to four years in prison after making an “open plea” of no contest to the 15 felonies filed against him. The plea meant there was no deal with prosecutors in place and he, in effect, was throwing himself at the mercy of the court.
The prison term was met with tears from his many family members and friends in attendance. August’s young daughter cried, “I want my daddy,” as family left the courtroom and August was led away in handcuffs.
Before being led away, August addressed the courtroom, noting that he was a changed man and said his tears were tears of joy, not sadness.
“I shouldn’t be deserving of having my wife sitting in the front row right now, but God has restored my marriage,” August said, saying his faith and volunteer work helped him to become a person of integrity.
After he pleaded guilty in 2017, investigators later learned that August worked with other law enforcement agencies transporting seized marijuana from crimes scenes to the department — where he was accused of stealing it.
According to ABC 23, Penny also entered a plea of no contest to two felony counts of falsifying a police report. He served 90 days in custody and was placed on probation for his involvement in the case.
As we reported at the time, shortly after his arrest, August released a video blaming Satan for his actions.
In the video, titled “I’m sorry” August said, “I want to first of all just express how sorry I am to the residents of Kern County and Bakersfield and especially to all the partners that I have with the Kern County Sheriff’s department and all the partners in the Bakersfield city Police Department. And anybody I ever worked with, anybody that wears the badge that I disgraced.”
August went on to say that “I made that decision based on Satan playing games with me, and making me feel like I was prideful and unable to go to family members for help.”
August explained that he pleaded guilty to his crimes and accepted responsibility for his actions, despite blaming them on Satan.
Apparently, this cop was fostering a long-standing relationship with ‘Satan’ as he’d been running this racket for some time.
August has a history of using the power of the state to oppress others and profit from it. According to the court document, he routinely participated in “marijuana eradication operations,” only to turn around and sell the stolen plants for hefty sums.
On 10 separate occasions between March 2014 and December 2014, August wrongfully took marijuana from a law enforcement eradication operation for personal gain. August distributed to his former confidential informant the equivalent of 25 pounds of usable marijuana wrongfully taken from these law enforcement eradication operations. August received $15,000 from the sale of this marijuana.
August’s daughter crying as her dad is led away by police in the courtroom is certainly heartbreaking and no person should ever be caged for selling a plant. But this officer hypocritically kidnapped and caged others for selling a plant and then turned around and sold the very plants he confiscated from them. This corruption and betrayal should not go unpunished.
All of this underscores yet another way that the police state and the war on drugs serve only to degrade society and create crime where none should exist. Growing and selling a medicinal plant that has been used by humans for thousands of years is not the problem. Government’s prohibition of cannabis – borne of racism and the stifling of dissent – is the problem.
While hundreds of thousands of people are locked in cages every year for possessing a beneficial plant, the enforcers of prohibition – “just doing their job” – benefit both legally and illegally from this war on people. The aforementioned deputies are among the rare few that actually get caught.
Source: The Free Thought Project
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE! Follow us on SoMee, HIVE, Parler, Flote, Minds, and Twitter.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.
Be the first to comment on "Cop Gets 4 Years for Arresting People for Marijuana, Stealing and Reselling It"