Pubdate: Fri, 01 Sep 2006
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2006 Mobile Register
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobileregister/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Gary McElroy

EX-COP'S TRY FOR REDUCED SENTENCE NIXED

Lawyers for a former undercover Mobile police officer convicted of 
stealing drug money failed Thursday to get his prison sentence 
reduced. Rodney Patrick, 39, was working in the department's 
narcotics section in 2000 and 2001, according to court records, when 
he pocketed nearly $5,000 earmarked for paying informants and buying drugs.

Patrick, who once won acclaim from the force as an officer of the 
year, went to trial in late 2002 and was found guilty of two counts 
of first-degree theft of property and two counts of second-degree 
theft of property.

A month later, Circuit Judge Ferrill McRae gave Patrick a 10-year 
sentence, then split it, ordering him to serve three years.

As a rule, split sentences mean that the felon must serve every day 
of the modified punishment -- in Patrick's case, the full three years 
McRae gave him. But on Thursday, with their client having served two 
years and five months of the term, Patrick's attorneys Richard 
Williams and John Wayne Boone asked McRae to allow him out early 
because of family needs, court officials said. Patrick was not in 
court Thursday.

Assistant District Attorney Ashley Rich was there to argue against 
the motion, telling McRae that the ex-officer should be made to pay 
the full penalty. And as for the missing drug money, Rich told McRae 
and said later outside court that Patrick had yet to repay "a dime" 
of the $4,960 he was convicted of stealing.

Rich also stressed that in the year during which the case was under 
appeal -- between the time he was convicted and the time he began 
serving the three-year sentence -- Patrick made no effort to pay back 
the stolen money. "He had a significant time period pending appeal 
when he was working and not in the penitentiary and could have begun 
paying back some of the court ordered (restitution)," Rich said.

Instead, she said, Patrick "scoffed at the courts." McRae ultimately 
nixed the defense attorneys' request, which means Patrick must serve 
another seven months in prison before going free.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman