Task Force Members Under Investigation
WDSU-TV News - New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS -- Two New Orleans police officers are under investigation for alleged extortion, WDSU NewsChannel 6 investigative reporter Richard Angelico learned Monday.
The officers, Micheal Wetstone and Sidney Webb, are members of the 8th District Task Force, a proactive crime-fighting unit that patrols the French Quarter and the area immediately surrounding it. The two have been reassigned to desk duty at headquarters pending the outcome of the investigation.
According to a New Orleans Police Department source, in December Wetstone and Webb arrested a man for a minor infraction, then allegedly suggested a way out: For $300, he would be released on the spot.
The man was taken to the Circle K convenience store on Esplanade Avenue, where he allegedly withdrew money from an ATM and gave it to the officers.
The man eventually complained to the department’s Public Integrity Division, or PID, and an investigation began.
The NOPD confirms that officers from the PID retrieved a surveillance tape from the store showing one of the officers in the store at the time the money was withdrawn.
An NOPD spokesman said federal and state laws may have been violated, and the FBI has been notified.
The spokesman also said there may be more than one victim, and the department is asking anyone with additional information to call the department.
Meanwhile, the results of investigation will be turned over to Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, and possibly to the U.S. attorney’s office.