Pubdate: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 Source: Providence Journal, The (RI) Copyright: 2004 The Providence Journal Company Contact: http://www.projo.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352 Author: Richard Salit, Journal staff Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) MIDDLETOWN OFFICER GUILTY OF STEALING POT, RESIGNS The 42-year-old former patrolman avoids jail time by pleading guilty to taking four small bags of marijuana from an evidence locker with a wire-coat hanger in May. NEWPORT -- Patrolman Michael Braley said in Superior Court Friday that he stole marijuana from a police evidence locker in May and said he would resign immediately. In exchange for Braley's resignation and his no-contest plea to a felony charge of committing a prohibited act by a law enforcement official, Braley was spared jail, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for the state attorney general. Braley faced the statutory 10 to 20 years in prison, but Associate Judge Stephen T. Nugent sentenced him to 10 years of probation. "What's most important is that Mr. Braley is no longer a police officer," Attorney General Patrick Lynch said in a statement. "When a police officer commits a crime, it erodes public trust, without which law enforcement would cease to operate effectively. With his immediate resignation from the force, his admission of guilt, and today's sentence, the cloud that he placed over the Middletown Police Department can be removed." Lynch's office recommended the plea deal and the judge accepted it. Braley, 42, had served on the force for 11 years when, according to court records, he took four small bags of marijuana shortly after they were seized during a May 16 arrest. The day the evidence disappeared, police investigators found a straightened wire coat hanger behind the evidence locker, as well as some blank evidence labels stuck to the inside walls of the locker. Detectives questioned all the officers who had worked shifts immediately before the drugs went missing, including Braley. Each denied knowledge of the missing evidence. The police sent the evidence labels to the state crime laboratory for fingerprinting, which revealed Braley's prints. When detectives approached Braley again, he said he took the marijuana in the early morning hours of May 17 during his midnight-to-8 a.m. shift. He said he stuck the labels to the end of the wire hanger and used the contraption to fish the marijuana bags from the locker. Braley told the detectives that he destroyed the evidence bag and emptied the contents of the four bags of marijuana out of his cruiser window while driving down West Main Road. He told detectives that he took the drugs because he was upset with his superiors and wanted them to be held accountable for the theft. Braley had also been charged with larceny under $500 and obstructing a police officer, both misdemeanors. Those charges were dismissed as part of his plea bargain. Healey said the plea bargain does not prevent Braley from becoming a police officer again. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin