Testimony focused on proper police procedure today in the second full day of the corruption trial of two top aides and friends of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
By Rochelle Olson
The Star Tribune
St. PAUL, Minn. — Testimony focused on proper police procedure today in the second full day of the corruption trial of two top aides and friends of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
Mark Naylon, the best man at Fletcher’s second wedding and his spokesman, and Timothy Rehak, a St. Paul officer who was on loan to Fletcher’s office, both face eight-count indictments related to two FBI integrity checks in 2004 and 2005.
The government peppered witnesses with questions intended to show how the men’s actions breached protocol and procedure. The defense painted Rehak as a tough street cop who wasn’t savvy about paperwork and who was working for a sheriff’s department with a reputation for playing “loose” with the rules.
The two men are on an FBI videotape from November 2004 pocketing $6,000 during a search warrant execution in the room of a purported drug dealer at the Kelly Inn. The two do not dispute they took the money. But their lawyers say the action was a practical joke played on a third officer involved in the search.
Only $7,500 of the $13,500 planted by the FBI was initially logged from the seizure. Later that night, Naylon and Rehak called the third officer and told him they found an additional $6,000.
In the second incident, the two entered a vehicle and found a bag of cash. They did not take the money, but they did not report the incident as an integrity check.
On the stand first today was Christopher Hoskin, a long-time St. Paul Police officer who retired a couple of years ago as senior commander to Chief John Harrington.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti questioned Hoskin about how officers handle seized property.
“If they seize property, there is only one thing you can do and that’s turn it in,” Hoskin said.
Marti asked whether it is ever appropriate for officer not to record significant events.
Copyright 2008 The Star Tribune