US MI: Drug-Stealing Detroit Police Worker Gets 15-year Sentence

[Binky]

A former Detroit Police Department employee who admitted he stole 100 kilograms of cocaine from an evidence room and replaced it with flour was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.

Before his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, John Cole Sr., 53, of Detroit asked Judge John Corbett O'Meara for leniency.

O'Meara acknowledged receiving 30 or 40 letters from relatives and friends of Cole. He apparently had worked as a civilian for the Police Department for more than 20 years without breaking the law, the judge said.

Cole, who pleaded guilty in August, confessed to laundering his profits in schemes that included purchasing as many as 19 properties.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracies to distribute narcotics and to launder money; federal prosecutors dropped other counts against him.

Prior to Cole's sentencing, Donald Hynes, 43, a retired Detroit police officer, was denied a bond that would allow him to remain free pending his sentencing July 19.

Hynes faces a minimum 10-year prison term. He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

A third man in the case -- Anthony Lasenby, 34, of Detroit -- was sentenced Wednesday to 3 years probation with six months of the sentence to be served in a community corrections facility.

Lasenby had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2005 Detroit Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.com
Website: http://www.freep.com/

[anonymous]

anyone else that would have done this would be looking at life or close to it ..what a freaking joke

[Happyplant]

yeah, that is pretty sad how they always manage to protect their own.

[swampy]

they tried to threaten me here in Michigan with 40 years minimum(2 20 year minimums 1 fed 1 state to run after each other) for about 70 plants, mostly clones but the biggest was a foot tall and no buds. That quantity of coke he should get federal mandatory life without parole(like lots of smugglers) just for the dope not even including the stealing and the rest.