The police report is clear: Officers Joshua Hunt and Samuel Birks were together on foot patrol at the Jackson Landing apartments in Algiers when they made a drug arrest in January.
But records dug up by defendant Alvin Bean's attorney show that Hunt, the officer who signed the report, was actually at the dentist on Jan. 25, 2011, at the time he and Birks allegedly made the arrest.
New Orleans police Thursday confirmed that Hunt and Birks were assigned to desk duty after the agency received "preliminary information" from the Orleans Parish district attorney's office about possible wrongdoing by the officers. Investigators with NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau have begun their own probe into allegations of perjury and neglect of duty, according to a statement by Superintendent Ronal Serpas.
Later in the day, Remi Braden, an NOPD spokeswoman, announced that Hunt had resigned.
Heather Hendrix, who has represented Bean since April, said her client always disputed the police version of his arrest. Bean says the officers planted a rock of crack on him at the time of his arrest, and then claimed they found it on him.
Bean was on parole for a Colorado conviction at the time of his January arrest, Hendrix said.
"They put him there and they know he can't bond out," she said, adding, "And who is going to believe him?"
Bean's version is that he was walking along Garden Oaks Drive at about 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. when he was stopped by a single officer in a car. That officer, whom Bean identified as Birks, ran the man's name, cuffed him and put him in the back seat, Hendrix said.
They drove around for a while until Birks got a call from Hunt, who wanted Birks to pick him up from the dentist, Hendrix said.
While the officers drove around with the handcuffed Bean, they kept asking him to tell them about criminal wrongdoing at nearby Jackson Landing. Bean told the officers he didn't know anything, Hendrix said.
At that point, one of the officers pulled a single rock of crack cocaine out of the side-door pocket, wrapped it in cellophane and stuck it in Bean's jacket pocket, she said.
After taking Bean's case in April, Hendrix immediately tracked down the dental practice on MacArthur Boulevard.
Responding to a subpoena, Westside Dental Group sent a letter to Hendrix confirming that Hunt had a dental appointment Jan. 25 that began at 2:40 p.m. and lasted approximately two hours -- the exact time he allegedly was out on foot patrol.
Hunt testified about the arrest during a motion hearing earlier this year, repeating under oath his version of what happened, Hendrix said.
In the police report, Hunt and Birks maintained that they were walking around the Algiers apartment complex together at about 3:30 p.m. when Birks noticed Bean in a "hand-to-hand" drug transaction. Birks stopped Bean and conducted a "pat down" search, prompting a single crack rock to fall out of Bean's jacket pocket, the report stated. The officers then took Bean to the 4th District station, tested the drug, and then drove him to Central Lockup for booking.
Hendrix said she told the Orleans Parish district attorney's office about what she uncovered. The DA's chief investigator, Howard Robertson, interviewed Bean about the case this week, she said.
Chris Bowman, an Orleans Parish assistant district attorney, declined to comment on Bean's case because it is still open. He wouldn't say whether the DA's office is investigating the police officers.
Bean still is facing a single count of cocaine possession, with a trial date of June 14. Hendrix said her client, before his arrest, had begun to turn his life around after three previous convictions. The day of the arrest, he was walking home from a temporary-job agency, she said.
Because of Bean's criminal record, if he were convicted of possessing crack, he could face a minimum of 20 years in prison. But Hendrix said she is confident the DA's office will drop the charge.
Many defendants tell their attorneys that they have been framed, Hendrix said, but it's rare to find a case with such a clear paper trail.
After hearing Bean's story, she thought, "There is a chain to follow; let's follow this and see," Hendrix said.
Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3316.
Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/06/attorney_new_orleans_police_of.html
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