| On December 28, 2008, a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, stopped 58-year-old Edward Johnson in his car. Officer Eric Hill said in his arrest report that he saw Johnson toss away a small amount of crack cocaine. Hill arrested Johnson, who was charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Johnson pled no contest to the charge in Tulsa County District Court on June 15, 2009. He received probation and a suspended sentence of 10 years.
In early 2009, the FBI began an investigation into several Tulsa police officers after a confidential informant told authorities that officers had seized her drugs and money and then told her she could get her money back if she sold drugs on their behalf.
In 2010, six Tulsa police officers and an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were charged with a wide range of federal offenses, including perjury, civil-rights violations, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; possession of a firearm in relation to drug-trafficking offense; and aiding and abetting money laundering.
Four of the officers were convicted or pled guilty. Three were acquitted at trial. The officers’ misconduct led to the dismissals of 30 wrongful convictions, including those of Larry Barnes and his daughter, Larita Barnes.
Hill, who was later fired by the Tulsa Police Department, was named in one of the indictments as an unindicted co-conspirator and said to have participated in a drug raid where he and other officers stole money from a suspect.
Johnson moved for post-conviction relief on October 3, 2011. Judge James Caputo granted motions vacating Johnson’s conviction and dismissing his charge that same day.
In 2012, Johnson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma against Hill and the city of Tulsa. Johnson said that he was not in possession of any drugs and that Hill falsified the police report.
The lawsuit said that Hill told officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and the internal affairs division of the Tulsa Police Department that on occasion he didn’t turn in drugs that were recovered from defendants and sometimes used these substances in the prosecution of other people. A coordinator with internal affairs also told the Tulsa World newspaper that the division received four or five complaints from persons stating that Hill planted drugs on them, the lawsuit said.
Johnson settled the lawsuit in 2015 and received $40,000.
– Ken Otterbourg
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