Florida Cop Busted For Planting Drugs on Drivers, Faces 100 Year In Prison

Back in the early 80s I was flying a corporate jet and was told by a detective friend of mine to be very careful when preflighting the aircraft as DEA was known to place drugs on an aircraft they wanted. I thought at the time it was a bit of paranoia along the lines of hard for me to totally believe. I still did a nook and crannies preflight just to make sure we were not carrying something out of some of the international destinations we were flying into that would get the bird confiscated..
There is nothing that gets my ire up faster than some agency or police department doing illegal crap that you and I would spend our lives behind bars for...

So here is a story that while bad and a disgrace seems to have a happy ending.

Now, a deputy who did just that is facing a century in prison.

A former North Florida Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested and charged with planting illegal drugs on unsuspecting motorists on Wednesday.

The strongest evidence in the case is the Deputy’s own body camera footage.

In February 2018 Deputy Zachary Wester pulled over Teresa Odom.

He said her brake lights didn’t work. He then asked if Odom would consent to a search of her vehicle.

The Deputy’s body cam video showed a white substance in his hand as he prepared to search. The drugs ended up in Odom’s purse, before he arrested her despite her cries that the drugs didn’t belong to her.

Months later prosecutors discovered the video. Wester was suspended then fired.

119 cases in Jackson County were dismissed soon after.

…

If convicted on all counts, the fired Deputy faces more than 100 years in prison.

When he was arrested, the deputy was allegedly found with drug paraphernalia on his person.

It would appear his trials and tribulations are not over yet as an additional 30 people who have come forward saying he did the same thing to them.
bearingarms.com...

And people wonder why nobody trusts the police, or really cares about them.

This dude should be executed to be honest, he disgraced the rule of law.


ETA: I live in FL, and I don't want this # in my state.

a reply to: 727Sky


That truly is disgusting beyond words, what a total piece of poo....


So we can bet that there are people in prison now or have possibly lost everything including possibly children, jobs, partners due to some bent Police officer.....


Whilst it is sad to say as in the end money will just be taken away from public services but I hope they sue the absolute hell out of the department and if convicted he gets a total of whatever those people had to go down for and the financial long term cost to them... In saying that 100 years does not seem a lot when you have over a hundred people having their cases thrown out.


I will not post here but I have heard this happening before and there is a viable way he "could" possibly get out of this but it depends on how good his lawyer is and what his background is within the department, I know as it happened to a Patrolman locally where I live and he got a very light sentence when they where talking of putting him under the prison.

One bad Police officer with a situation like this destroys the trust and good work of the Thousands of others..

a reply to: 727Sky

Yep modern camera technology.

A law enforcements worst nightmare, how many countless times have cops been done in by cameras when pre camera in everyone's hand era they got away with it all.

In regards to this type of capture - long live technology.

100 years? They won't last 100 minutes in there once the others get wind of the conviction

County deputy eh? I like the fact we can vote on a county sheriff, but I don't trust anyone in county business here, cops included. Local village and city cops, wouldn't trust them either unless I knew them personally. State police? Maybe, I don't hear about corruption with them too often, but in my experience all government is corrupt from township to state offices. That said, most cops I've dealt with were OK, some were even really cool, but there were many who were pricks too

Obviously you can never be sure who is the bad cop unless you have heard talk about them and know who they are. Therefore it is best to be careful and trust no one in a position of power over you.

a reply to: 727Sky

119 cases have been dropped. 8 people have been released from confinement. Over 250 cases are still under review.

This knobhead is an absolute disgrace of the highest order.

a reply to: 727Sky

I would be shocked if he gets any jail time at all...


I bet he gets probation at the worst because the police unions and other officers ALWAYS consider it a personal affront to prosecute an officer..


Apparently they are afraid they will be prosecuted later for the same crimes... likely because planting drugs is super common place..

a reply to: Petra137

He will definitely get out of it..

All the conservative “pro-police” groups will back him..

The police officers unions will back him and the street level law enforcement will back him..


Any officer that is prosecuted has the rest of law enforcement decide that it could be them that is prosecuted next

Makes you wonder just how he was able to get his hands on drugs so readily.

Do they, I wonder, actually keep tabs on what is confiscated? Or was he out there, buying.. Somehow I think the former being false is more the case... and in thinking that, just how many cops have easy access to undocumented illicit substances..

That should be cause for further investigation, in my opinion. The cracks were there to allow for his taking.

a reply to: 727Sky

It seems like not enough even.