By Harry R. Weber
The Associated Press
ATLANTA, Ga. — A former police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to taking cash payoffs from the owner of an apartment complex in exchange for special protection.
The extortion was revealed during the investigation into another embarrassing incident for Atlanta police: the fatal 2006 police shooting of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid.
Daniel Betts, who resigned from the police force Wednesday, pleaded guilty to one federal count of interfering with interstate commerce by means of extortion under color of official right.
Betts admitted taking payoffs from the owner of the complex, which functions as a rehabilitation facility for recovering drug addicts. Prosecutors said he took $120 a week from the apartment owner over at least a four-month period last year.
Betts, 26, told U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes he didn’t know his conduct was illegal at the time, but he does now.
Prosecutors said Betts told the owner of the complex that other officers involved were “pushing crime away” from the complex and toward another that was not making payments. Betts’ attorney, William McKenney, told reporters after the plea hearing that there is no evidence Betts participated in that part of the scheme.
McKenney said his client, an officer for nearly five years, had been granted permission from the city to work a second job providing off-duty security. Prosecutors, however, said that since Betts was on duty when he took the payoffs and provided special protection, he was committing an extortion-related offense.
Betts faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for April 4. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he will likely face much less time.
Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said in a statement that “such allegations or actions negatively affect the entire department and, in no way, reflect the high standards to which the majority of our officers proudly adhere.”
According to federal prosecutors, Betts was implicated after one of the officers involved in the Nov. 21, 2006, killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston told investigators that several members of the department were taking such payoffs.
Johnston was killed in a hail of 39 police gunshots after plainclothes narcotics officers burst into her home using a no-knock warrant. Johnston also was armed; she fired once through her door and didn’t hit any of the officers, prosecutors said.
Two officers, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, pleaded guilty to state manslaughter and federal civil rights charges and have left the police force. Arthur Tesler, the only other officer charged in connection with the botched raid, plans to go to trial on state counts of violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process.
Prosecutors said it was Junnier who alerted authorities to the extortion scheme.