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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman