14, 11 and 9-year terms levied for three caught in FBI drug-trafficking sting
By John Holland and Ihosvani Rodriguez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The tears started early and never really stopped, each anguished plea for leniency by parents, wives and friends a reminder of the damage done when police officers become criminals.
Damage to the families they say they shamed. To the honest Hollywood Police officers they served with for years but ultimately betrayed. And finally to the wayward officers themselves, who trafficked heroin and will now sit in federal prison while their children grow up without them and their spouses try to survive without their income and their friendship.
Hollywood Police Sgt. Kevin Companion was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison and Officer Stephen Harrison received a nine-year term before a crowded courtroom of supporters in Fort Lauderdale.
Three hours later, a federal judge in Miami was no more forgiving of their colleague, Detective Thomas Simcox, 50, handing him a sentence of just over 11 years and a $100,000 fine.
“The actions in this case frankly are disgusting and despicable. It almost defies belief,” U.S. District Judge Donald Graham said while handing Simcox more time than even prosecutors sought. “On the scale of criminal conduct, this case ranks near the top.”
Former Sgt. Jeff Courtney, who prosecutors pegged as second only to Companion in an elaborate criminal enterprise, will be sentenced next month. He is providing testimony to FBI agents in hopes of reducing his sentence, lawyers said.
All four have been fired and will almost certainly lose their pensions, police officials have said.
The four officers were arrested in February after an FBI sting caught them — on videotape — dealing in stolen diamonds in Atlantic City; transporting stolen art while using police evidence room receipts as cover; protecting crooked card games; and finally, late last year, running protection for what they thought was a shipment of heroin.
The men thought they were dealing with a major Northeast crime family, but instead had been duped by FBI undercover agents investigating what they called “ongoing corruption within the Hollywood police department.”
Agents were targeting higher-ranking officers, lawyers said in court Friday, but the operation ended early after news of the investigation leaked. Lt. Charles Roberts is the only one charged in the leak investigation so far, though lawyers said that inquiry is continuing.
Friday morning’s sentencing of Companion, 41, and Harrison, 47, included hours of emotional pleadings, while raising the question of how men who all agreed were caring, compassionate family men and good police officers could turn criminal.
The amount of money they received — from $12,000 for Harrison up to $42,000 for Companion — was less than they could have made working overtime and extra details, Hollywood police officials have said.
“Any sentence would serve not only as punishment of Kevin, but of his family and his kids,” a tearful Emily Companion, Sgt. Companion’s wife, told U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn as she clutched photos of the couple’s two children, her husband crying just a few feet away. “We are suffering every minute of every day.”
Cohn responded sympathetically: “Ma’am, you know it is always the family who suffers the most. Always.” Looking at the pictures, he smiled and said, “your children are beautiful.”
Kevin Companion followed with an apology and a defense of himself.
“I need to apologize to my family ... I have embarrassed them and myself,” Companion told Cohn. “And to the men and women of the Hollywood Police Department. I was a good police officer and a good man. ... I’m still a good man.”
Companion and Harrison were taken into custody immediately after sentencing. Simcox must report to prison Sept. 24.
The day included several revelations, including that Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry asked Harrison to speak to recruits while awaiting trial. Attorney Ed O’Donnell said his client met with the chief to apologize, and Scarberry responded by asking him to talk to new officers about the dangers of temptation on the job.
Scarberry backed out because the “atmosphere” at the police department had become hostile, O’Donnell said. A spokesperson for the Hollywood police department could not be reached for comment.
While handing down sentences, Judges Cohn and Graham seemed equally disturbed.
“We trust police officers to protect us from the criminal element, not to be part of the criminal element,” Cohn said. “I see no redeeming factor here. There is no [explanation] here other than greed and arrogance of power.”
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