Police Officer Caught By Dashcam Video Planting Drugs on Suspect

Police dash cam video:The community of Cookeville, in Putnam County, is facing a $10 million lawsuit amid the release of shocking police dash cam video. The video, from a Cookeville police cruiser, shows the arrest of a Putnam County man. A Cookeville officer is seen allegedly placing drugs on the man, Carlos Ferrell, before arresting him. Ferrell is now suing the city of Cookeville, the police department, Putnam County, and the sheriff's office for $10 million. During the arrest, Ferrell was also bitten by a police K9. Chris Melton, one of the officers involved, is now on leave, and his police force is facing statewide scrutiny. One officer has been placed on leave because of the incident, and five others are named in the federal lawsuit.

Also, this is not the fake video posted awhile back.

These acts are sick, but its expected nowadays, is it sad i'm not even mad anymore? Its more of a "Oh great not again." feeling.

Anyway here is the video, sorry i don't have much input but the video should explain itself.

www.youtube.com...

This occurred some time back. Back in June 2007 and there are several sources on this other than the youtube vid.

Here is a write up on it from a local source..

Lawsuit Claims Police Planted Drugs During Arrest

However, given that this occurred 4 years ago lots of things have happened. For one, the lawsuit was withdrawn because the cops didn't plant evidence even though it looks that way in the vid..

Evidence not planted in Cookeville police video case

From the above article..

COOKEVILLE (AP) -- A man who filed a lawsuit claiming a Cookeville police officer planted marijuana on him has acknowledged that he did have the substance during his arrest.

Carlos Ferrell has filed a $10 million lawsuit over the arrest, which was recorded on a patrol car video last June. Ferrell's admission came as part of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter.

Another result was that the Officer Cleared Of Wrongdoing because it was found that...

Melton said police video captured on his squad car camera showed him frisking Ferrell. At one point, Melton faced the camera, reach into his own shirt pocket and then put the same hand in Ferrell's front pants pocket. Melton then pulled out a bag of marijuana.

Initially, Ferrell said he didn't have drugs.

District Attorney Tony Craighead said the TBI investigation is over. The agency cleared Melton of any misconduct.

"After my review, there's no wrongdoing or misconduct on the part of Officer Melton," Craighead said.

Craighead said Melton reached into his pocket to grab a remote control for the police car video camera.

A couple of points - I dislike a dirty cop as much as the next guy. But sometimes not everything is as it seems (as it was here). This incident has been covered on ATS a few times now - you can't always trust youtube to be a reliable source of up to date, accurate info.

reply to post by Frogs


Thanks for the info, i figured because the youtube video was pasted the 16th, it was relatively new, google results come up with far too many results for different cases.

It sounds more like the suspect was threatened into pleading guilty and most likely made an offer he couldn't refuse in regards to claiming it was his drugs.

Many years ago I had a classmate who was pulled over by a cop, called racial slurs, and he proceeded to file a complaint with the police department. Well while he was out and about he was "visited" by this officer along with several other officers (all off duty in civilian dress) who made it clear that he should withdraw the complaint, and essentially alluded that if not that "unfortunate" things could happen. He withdrew it and moved on with his life, saying it was a battle not worth fighting. They left him alone after that.

I am sure it happens more than people realize, as the blue brotherhood is there to protect itself.

I have a few attorneys in the family and many if not most defense attorneys begin their careers as public defenders.

This planting of evidence does occur more often than people realize or care to realize simply because of it's prevalence to the 2nd Class citizens namely the poor who havent the resources to hire a team of defense attorneys.

It is the arresting officer's word against that of the lowly defendant's.

The fact that this officer was suddenly cleared of all wrong doing does infer that some deal was made with the defendant persuading him to change his story.

Perhaps a visit by the local Klavern ?

The reason as to why is Simply due to the legal procedures in that attorney would never even considering accepting and/or persuing a case let alone a $10 Million lawsuit unless having first had a very solid evidence if not bullet proof case beforehand.

Especially a case against the local govt. as the Police are part of.


Sad....very sad. For it exemplifies the magnitude of corruption which continues to abound.



Peace