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SIX ALABAMA PRESENT AND FORMER POLICE OFFICERS INDICTED

WASHINGTON, D.C. Six present and former police officers of the Prichard Alabama Police Department (PPD) were arrested on a 25-count federal indictment charging them with engaging in police corruption. The indictment, returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Alabama, charges all six defendants with racketeering, conspiracy against civil rights, and deprivation of civil rights. The indictment also charges one or more of the defendants with federal extortion, embezzlement, and illegal possession and distribution of crack cocaine.

The six defendants are former Lt. James Stallworth, former Sgt. John Stuckey, former Detective Frederick Pippins and Detectives Anthony Diaz, Derek Gillis, and Nathan McDuffie. All six defendants were associated with the PPD Vice and Narcotics Unit.

As alleged in the indictment, from July 1999 through September 2000, the defendants used their positions as PPD officers to enrich themselves by engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity and civil rights violations that included extorting, robbing, and soliciting bribes from individuals detained by the PPD for alleged criminal offenses. Specifically, the indictment charges that the defendants unlawfully obtained and kept money from individuals detained by the PPD in return for not pursuing criminal charges against those individuals. In addition, the indictment alleges that some of the defendants robbed individuals of money and other items of value when they were detained by PPD officers during the execution of search warrants.

To conceal these illegal acts, the indictment states that the defendants falsified police paperwork, including police reports and search warrant returns. Furthermore, the indictment charges that defendant John Stuckey illegally retained drugs seized by PPD officers in the course of their official duties and then unlawfully distributed those drugs to others for personal use and resale.

Finally, the indictment alleges that defendant James Stallworth, the former PPD property custodian responsible for securing money seized from individuals by PPD officers, embezzled thousands of dollars in seized monies under the care and custody of the PPD.

If convicted, the defendants face possible maximum sentences ranging from 55 to 125 years in prison on the 25-count indictment.

This case is being handled by Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, and the investigation is being handled by the Mobile Alabama office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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