Pubdate: Wed, 19 Mar 2014
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Note: Does not publish letters from outside their circulation area.
Author: Pablo Lopez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

FRESNO POLICE DETECTIVE ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGE

A Fresno police detective was arrested Tuesday on federal charges 
that accuse him of taking a $20,000 bribe from a suspected drug dealer.

Vice intelligence squad detective Derik Carson Kumagai, 40, and 
alleged co-conspirator Saykham Somphoune, 40, of Clovis, were booked 
into the Fresno County Jail on charges of conspiracy, bribery and 
extortion, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Cullers said at a news 
conference in U.S. District Court in Fresno.

A criminal complaint says Somphoune, who is not a law enforcement 
officer, also took or agreed to accept a bribe from the suspected drug dealer.

They will be arraigned today in federal court.

"It's a sad day for the Fresno Police Department," said a solemn 
Police Chief Jerry Dyer, who joined Cullers and other federal law 
enforcement officials at the news conference.

Dyer said Kumagai has been with the Fresno Police Department since 
June 2000. For the past 14 months, he has been assigned to the vice 
intelligence unit, the chief said. The unit investigates things like 
prostitution and outlaw biker gangs and assists narcotics officers 
with major drug investigations.

Dyer said there was nothing in Kumagai's background to alert his 
supervisors to any potential wrongdoing. Kumagai is now on paid 
administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal police 
investigation. Dyer said the officer has given up his badge and 
service weapon for the time being.

"I'm disappointed," Dyer said. "It's cases like this that erode the 
trust that our citizens have in the police department."

Cullers declined to discuss the relationship between Kumagai and 
Somphoune, but he and the criminal complaint outlined the allegations 
against the pair:

According to Cullers, federal agents had been investigating a 
marijuana operation for about two years when they learned Kumagai and 
Somphoune had met with a suspected drug trafficker several times last fall.

In late October, Somphoune first told the suspected drug dealer that 
"Kumagai and others were asking for $60,000 in return for closing the 
purported investigation," the complaint says. Then on Oct. 22, 
Somphoune and Kumagai met with the suspected drug dealer, the 
complaint says, and told him the federal investigation "could be 
dropped in return for a bribe payment."

On Nov. 6, 2013, the suspected drug dealer paid Kumagai $20,000 cash, 
the complaint says.

After the bribe was paid, the suspected drug dealer completed 
documents to become a confidential police informant.

Cullers said the suspected drug trafficker had a motive to become an 
informant: "He could fly under the radar" and not be suspected in 
investigations.

Dyer said Kumagai didn't have the authority to sign up an informant. 
According to department policy, Dyer said, the Fresno County District 
Attorney's Office must sign off on anyone who wants to become an 
informant for police.

The case was the result of an investigation by the federal Drug 
Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal 
Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection 
Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland 
Security Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Grant Rabenn and Kevin Rooney are 
prosecuting the case.

If convicted of conspiracy, the two defendants face a maximum penalty 
of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Cullers said. A 
conviction on the bribery charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 
years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom