Associated Press
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) - A federal investigation that has already resulted in the dismissal of three West Memphis officers also includes a probe of the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office, authorities say.
Three West Memphis officers were dismissed last year after being accused of failing to follow departmental policy on handling seized cash. None has been charged with a crime.
The federal investigators are looking into whether drug interdiction officers in Crittenden County and West Memphis skimmed cash from money seized from couriers stopped on the region’s interstate highways.
Interstate 40 is a primary route for drugs heading east, and for couriers carrying money back to the west after completing drug distribution deals. More than $5.4 million in cash has been seized from suspected drug couriers in the past 2 1/2 years, records show.
Prosecutor Brent Davis said he is aware of an investigation going on in Crittenden County, but has not been kept apprised of its progress. Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby says he’s aware some of his deputies are under suspicion, but he won’t say more than that.
In October, West Memphis Mayor Bill Johnson approved Police Chief Robert H. Paudert’s decision to fire three officers - Inspector James F. Sudbury, patrolman Joseph W. Applegate and Sgt. E.A. “Tony” Bradley.
The city’s personnel records indicate the FBI was investigating drug interdiction operations on the highways well before the firings. Paudert says he helped with the federal probe after going to the FBI with his suspicions more than a year ago.
Paudert said officers came to him with their concerns shortly after he became police chief in 1999. Paudert is the former head of Metro Narcotics across the Mississippi River in the Memphis, Tenn., area, under the late Shelby County Sheriff Jack Owens.
Paudert says he can’t say much about what he told the FBI except that it involved “money missing from the interstate.”
Crittenden County Judge Melton Holt, an elected official who is the county’s chief administrator, said federal agents have sought both courthouse and sheriff’s office records.
County Assessor Bill Eddings said FBI investigators also sought information about the real estate and personal property of some Crittenden County deputies.