The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- A former Chicago police detective has pleaded guilty a second time to a federal drug charge after a judge rejected his first plea agreement as too lenient.
Jon F. Woodall faces 10 years in prison after admitting to stealing cocaine and planting some of the drugs on an innocent man. U.S. District Judge John Darrah, who rejected an earlier plea deal that was a year shorter, set sentencing for Jan. 28.
Woodall, 41, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to distribute cocaine. He admitted that he and two other former police officers -- James Benson and Peter Matich -- got a tip from a drug suspect in March 1998 that 7 kilograms of cocaine were hidden in an impounded car.
Prosecutors said the three officers stole the cocaine then agreed to sell 5 kilograms and plant the rest of the drugs on another suspect. Charges against that man eventually were dropped.
Benson was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week after prosecutors credited him with breaking the “code of silence” among police officers before he was indicted.
Woodall’s lawyer, Alan Brunell, said his client also cooperated with federal authorities.
Matich, whose plea agreement calling for seven-and-a-half years in prison also was rejected by Darrah, is scheduled to plead guilty again to charges that call for a lengthier sentence.