Being caught selling cannabis on the street can result in serving jail time, depending on where you are at. That didn’t count for two California police officers. These cops happened to confess to stealing cannabis captured during arrests and used the stolen plant to re-sell with another officer. Their punishment didn’t fit the crime though.
Per Bakersfield.com
Two former Kern County sheriff’s deputies, Logan August and Derrick Penney, who conspired with another law enforcement officer to sell drugs they stole from evidence lockers, were sentenced here Monday morning to probation. They will do no prison time.
The disgraced officers, who both admitted to besmirching the badge and betraying their fellow officers, their families and the community, had faced maximum sentences of five years.
But in an extraordinary and tearful sentencing hearing presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill, the two officers were spared prison time by the judge, who was clearly moved by the defendants’ remorse, their decision to voluntarily confess everything to investigators, the pain the families have already suffered, and the unwavering support the two wives have given their husbands.
“Being the wife of a fallen law enforcement officer is even more difficult.”
O’Neill went on to acknowledge that the wives had taken “the brunt,” maybe the largest share, of the suffering meted out by the acts of their husbands.
“The two of you have been incredible not to have gotten into the U-Haul and taken off,” he said. “The both of you should be proud.”
Federal prosecutors had recommended a nine-month prison term for August, who was seen as more deeply involved than Penney.
In a sentencing memorandum filed last month, prosecutors said a nine-month term was appropriate for August in part “because the need to deter police corruption of this kind is of paramount importance.”
Prosecutors said August used his position as a deputy to steal marijuana that would have been destroyed and instead helped spread it into the community.
“Defendant’s actions were motivated by greed, and he committed these crimes repeatedly over a nine-month period,” prosecutors said. “His conduct has tarnished the reputation of the KCSO.”
Prosecutors recommended probation for Penney, noting there was no evidence of his criminal activity beyond his one-time theft of marijuana from the storage unit. Penney was the first to go to authorities and helped convince August and former Bakersfield Police Department Detective Patrick Mara to join him in coming clean.
While most families who was in court waiting to hear the fate of a loved on in the same position are most waiting to hear how much time their loved one will receive. Instead, the families of the officers we’re so convincing in their testimony that the judge didn’t give two of the officers any time.
Unlike the two BPD officers who faced more serious charges, August and Penney will not see a jail cell.
Mara and his former BPD partner, Damacio Diaz, are currently serving five-year sentences in federal prison for stealing methamphetamine and putting it back on the streets for profit.
All four former cops have admitted to their crimes.
According to the plea agreements, August and Penney stole marijuana from the sheriff’s storage unit that had been previously confiscated from illegal grow operations.
The two admitted to cutting the tops off plants and placing them in trash bags, storing the pot at Penney’s home until another co-conspirator retrieved it. That person trimmed the plants into usable cannabis.