Marijuana Policy Project

INDIANAPOLIS — The arrests of four Indianapolis police officers are forcing the dismissals of more than two dozen pending cases and could cause drug-crime convictions in other cases to be overturned on appeal, prosecutors said Monday.

As of today, the Marion County prosecutor's office expects to have dismissed 20 cases investigated by former narcotics officers Robert Long and Jason Edwards, officials said.

"These officers were in this court several weeks ago testifying against defendants," Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Monday. "Now they are defendants."

Deputy Prosecutor Lawrence Brodeur, the chief of narcotics and gun cases, said he was evaluating 12 other cases and would consider the effect on even more in coming days.

Long, Edwards and former patrol officer James Davis are accused of stealing cash and marijuana from drug dealers. A sweeping F.B.I. investigation used wiretaps and other surveillance methods to track the three officers committing crimes, according to a federal indictment.

Long, Edwards and Davis were arrested June 16 and are in Marion County Jail while they await trial in U.S. District Court.

Jason Barber, 31, was in Marion Superior Court on Monday on state charges of selling a handgun to a felon and official misconduct. Barber worked with Long and Edwards in the dangerous drug section but has not been linked to the alleged drug dealer rip-offs. He was arrested at his home Friday.

The arrests have tainted the credibility of the roughly 1,700-member force in the eyes of the public, Brizzi said, even if most officers are honest. The three officers were part of a 19-member narcotics unit.

"It hurts every jury trial that we try over the next several months," Brizzi said. "We lose credibility.... I can't elicit testimony from (the arrested officers) after these charges."

Prosecutors are sorting out the courtroom ramifications. Nearly all of the 20 dismissed cases involved lead charges of drug dealing and possession, according to Marion Superior Court records.

The father of one defendant said Long and Edwards stole $2,000 during a search of his Northside Indianapolis home and planted evidence on his son.

"They tore up my house looking for drugs, and then they took some money out of here," said Bobby P. Johnson, 51. "I came home, and my house was destroyed."

Long and Edwards arrested Johnson's son Bobby D. Johnson, 33, in November at another home on the city's Far Eastside. A probable cause affidavit doesn't list his parents' address, but they insist their home was searched, too.

Johnson faced counts of possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and possession of marijuana, charges that could have brought at least six years in prison. Prosecutors will dismiss the case after court opens this morning, Brodeur said.

Johnson, whose prior convictions include cocaine dealing and drug possession, long claimed the officers lied when they wrote in a court affidavit used to get the search warrant that they observed him selling drugs to an informant, said Bob Hammerle, his attorney.

"This is horrifying," Hammerle said. "I don't want to sit here and represent that my guy was a choir director.... (But) the guys with the badges are the crooks."

Prosecutors also dismissed charges of possession of cocaine and a firearm against Darnell L. Birdsong, 33, because Long and Edwards had served the search warrant.

Birdsong has said the officers also stole his money and valuables during a search, according to attorney Michael Moore.

"There's not a lot you can do about it," said Terrance Tharpe, a firearms prosecutor who handled the Birdsong and Johnson cases. "There's no point in putting (the officers) on the stand."

Brizzi, Hammerle and other experts said the arrests could lead to successful appeals for some people already serving prison sentences based on the work of the arrested officers. But exactly how many convictions will be set aside is unclear.

Bill Polansky, the state's chief deputy public defender in noncapital cases, said the bar is set high for an appeal based on newly discovered evidence such as a tarnished police officer.

"The more important the officer's testimony is," he said, "the more likely a conviction will be thrown out."