Pubdate: Thu, 19 May 2005
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2005 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Cecil Angel, DFP Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

DRUG-STEALING DETROIT POLICE WORKER GETS 15-YEAR SENTENCE

A former Detroit Police Department employee who admitted he stole 100
kilograms of cocaine from an evidence room and replaced it with flour
was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.

Before his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, John Cole
Sr., 53, of Detroit asked Judge John Corbett O'Meara for leniency.

O'Meara acknowledged receiving 30 or 40 letters from relatives and
friends of Cole. He apparently had worked as a civilian for the Police
Department for more than 20 years without breaking the law, the judge
said.

Cole, who pleaded guilty in August, confessed to laundering his
profits in schemes that included purchasing as many as 19 properties.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracies to distribute narcotics and to
launder money; federal prosecutors dropped other counts against him.

Prior to Cole's sentencing, Donald Hynes, 43, a retired Detroit police
officer, was denied a bond that would allow him to remain free pending
his sentencing July 19.

Hynes faces a minimum 10-year prison term. He remains in the custody
of the U.S. Marshals Service.

A third man in the case -- Anthony Lasenby, 34, of Detroit -- was
sentenced Wednesday to 3 years probation with six months of the
sentence to be served in a community corrections facility.

Lasenby had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary
instruments. 
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