Great Police Work
When a police department was faced with information that an officer was buying prescription drugs from other people, they came up with a creative way to investigate. Has your office ever seen something like this?
Prince v. State
(Tex.App. Dist.1 05/27/2004)
NO. 01-03-00191-CR
OPINION
A jury found appellant, Mark Edward Prince, guilty of possession of a controlled substance and assessed punishment at 365 days' confinement and a $4,000 fine. The trial court imposed sentence, suspended it, and placed appellant on two years' community supervision.
Appellant was employed as a police officer for the City of Katy Police Department from October 1990 to December 17, 2001. During appellant's employment, Katy Police Captain Gay Dickerson received information that appellant had attempted to purchase Vicodin tablets from other officers in the department.
On August 17, 2001, Captain Dickerson arranged for a local businessman to deliver a bag holding clothing and a prescription bottle containing fifteen Vicodin tablets to appellant while appellant was working the front desk at the police station. The businessman told appellant that he had seen someone leave the bag on the street corner and walk away.
When the businessman left, appellant searched through the bag and retrieved the Vicodin tablets. He was then dispatched to an accident scene. Upon inspecting the bag after appellant's departure, Captain Dickerson discovered that the prescription bottle was missing. Captain Dickerson notified police supervisors, who followed appellant to the accident scene to which he had been dispatched and discovered the prescription bottle in appellant's patrol car. Appellant had ingested four of the tablets on the way to the accident scene.