|
Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 10, 2006 16:30:20 GMT -5
Deputy Patrick Allen Taylor 11.10.2006 - KNOXVILLE -- The sentencing for a former chief deputy in the Cocke County Sheriff's Office was postponed Monday. Deputy Patrick Allen Taylor pleaded guilty in a scheme to sell thousands of dollars in stolen property. He was due to be sentenced in federal District Court at Greeneville but the judge determined testimony could not be completed Monday. Taylor and his younger Brother, Jarrod Taylor, were arrested as part of a federal probe dubbed "Rose Thorn" that has brought criminal charges against more than 170 people in Cocke County, including eight lawmen. In court filings, assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith claims Taylor took payoffs from unlicensed bars that had illegal gambling machines, protected a cockfighting pit in Del Rio and helped some sheriff's department employees avoid drug screening. The prosecutor also contends Taylor plotted with another officer to rob a drug courier, thought to be carrying $300,000. www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=5575558&nav=0RYv
|
|
|
Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 29, 2006 10:27:37 GMT -5
11.29.2006 - The former chief deputy of the Cocke County Sheriff's Department was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for trafficking in thousands of dollars worth of stolen property. Deputy Patrick Allen Taylor, 40, nephew of former Sheriff D.C. Ramsey, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer. Taylor, the highest-ranking East Tennessee law officer to be arrested by the FBI since 1989, pleaded guilty earlier to the stolen goods charge along with his younger brother, Jarrod Taylor. They were nabbed as part of an ongoing five-year corruption probe in Cocke County dubbed "Rose Thorn" that has yielded criminal charges... against more than 170 people, including eight lawmen. "Very simply put, Mr. Taylor, a message needs to be sent," Greer said during sentencing. "Honorable law enforcement officers who uphold the law every day and lay their lives on the line every day deserve our respect and our honor every day. "Those who violate the very laws they are sworn to uphold deserve swift and certain punishment." Taylor apologized to the court, his family and Cocke County citizens. He was facing a maximum five-year term behind bars, but his lawyer was asking that he be sentenced to no more than six months in prison, records show. Assistant U.S.Attorney Neil Smith, who has prosecuted most of the Rose Thorn cases, has said Taylor committed numerous other crimes while in charge of the day-to-day operations of the sheriff's department. Taylor was appointed chief deputy after his uncle was elected sheriff in 1998. Ramsey also has been targeted in the Rose Thorn probe but hasn't been charged. He resigned in January after it was disclosed that he was being investigated because of allegations of racketeering and payoffs related to organized gambling. In court documents, Smith claims that Taylor extorted money from unlicensed bars that operated illegal gambling machines, protected a cockfighting pit inDel Rio and helped some department employees avoid being busted on drug screens. Taylor also plotted with another officer to rob a drug courier believed to be carrying $300,000, according to Smith. www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-former-deputy-gets-years-in-prison/62368.htm
|
|