07-22-2006, 06:19 PM
Drug raid compromised by advance notice from within police department
A raid of known drug dealers in the Sea Jay Apartments in April came up empty as the suspects had advance knowledge that the cops were coming
-- John Patten, 07/21/06
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com
On April 3 of this year, officers from the Venice Police Department, armed with a search warrant, raided an apartment in the Sea Jay Apartment complex on Barbara Drive. Officers had been advised that drugs and weapons would likely be found. The police already had solid information that drugs were being sold from the apartment, specifically Oxycontin.
The raid produced nothing -- no weapons, no drugs. Then something odd happened. One of the suspects stated that the reason the cops came up empty in the raid was because the dealers knew that the cops were coming.
That comment sparked an internal investigation into Sgt. Ralph Adrian, who had reportedly tipped the department's hand to the subjects of the investigation prior to the raid.
The internal investigation, which was concluded last month, determined that Adrian did indeed give out advance notice of the raid to the suspects. Ironically, the internal investigation report notes that Adrian was the lead officer in the raid and briefed the other officers prior to the raid, this with the full knowledge that the suspects already knew of the impending raid.
Adrian, as noted in the report, disappeared during the raid. Investigators wrote that Adrian could come up with no satisfactory explanation for his whereabouts during the raid: "Sgt. Adrian made the VPD officer assignments for this raid and he was the VPD uniform command officer present for the raid briefing. By standard protocol for these types of situations, Sgt. Adrian should have been present at the scene of the raid. Given this, one wonders where Sgt. Adrian was when the raid went down and what he was doing that was more important than raid site sergeant duties... his absence at the raid was highly unusual and without adequate justification or explanation."
In his defense, Adrian told investigators that his warning to the suspects was a bit of fatherly advice to a young woman.
Adrian further stated that there are drugs in every apartment in the City of Venice, a statement that caused the investigative report writer no small amount of indignation. When Adrian later tried to justify that statement by saying that he was referring to all drugs, not just illegal ones, the report writer went ballistic: "The statement... is not only an insult to the population of Venice and the taxpayers who pay Sgt. Adrian's wages, it is a gross mischaracterization of what Sgt. Adrian was, in fact, referring to, namely illicit drugs. ...in an effort to dispel culpability of whitewashing by Sgt. Adrian, another act of whitewashing has been committed therein."
The investigation report concluded that Adrian's actions compromised an investigation and placed the safety and welfare of his fellow officers in serious jeopardy.
As punishment, Adrian was given a four-day suspension.
This article can be found at:
http://venfl.com/features/seajayraid.htm
and the copy of the IA report can be found at: http://venfl.com/features/pdf/seajayraid.pdf
A raid of known drug dealers in the Sea Jay Apartments in April came up empty as the suspects had advance knowledge that the cops were coming
-- John Patten, 07/21/06
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com
On April 3 of this year, officers from the Venice Police Department, armed with a search warrant, raided an apartment in the Sea Jay Apartment complex on Barbara Drive. Officers had been advised that drugs and weapons would likely be found. The police already had solid information that drugs were being sold from the apartment, specifically Oxycontin.
The raid produced nothing -- no weapons, no drugs. Then something odd happened. One of the suspects stated that the reason the cops came up empty in the raid was because the dealers knew that the cops were coming.
That comment sparked an internal investigation into Sgt. Ralph Adrian, who had reportedly tipped the department's hand to the subjects of the investigation prior to the raid.
The internal investigation, which was concluded last month, determined that Adrian did indeed give out advance notice of the raid to the suspects. Ironically, the internal investigation report notes that Adrian was the lead officer in the raid and briefed the other officers prior to the raid, this with the full knowledge that the suspects already knew of the impending raid.
Adrian, as noted in the report, disappeared during the raid. Investigators wrote that Adrian could come up with no satisfactory explanation for his whereabouts during the raid: "Sgt. Adrian made the VPD officer assignments for this raid and he was the VPD uniform command officer present for the raid briefing. By standard protocol for these types of situations, Sgt. Adrian should have been present at the scene of the raid. Given this, one wonders where Sgt. Adrian was when the raid went down and what he was doing that was more important than raid site sergeant duties... his absence at the raid was highly unusual and without adequate justification or explanation."
In his defense, Adrian told investigators that his warning to the suspects was a bit of fatherly advice to a young woman.
Adrian further stated that there are drugs in every apartment in the City of Venice, a statement that caused the investigative report writer no small amount of indignation. When Adrian later tried to justify that statement by saying that he was referring to all drugs, not just illegal ones, the report writer went ballistic: "The statement... is not only an insult to the population of Venice and the taxpayers who pay Sgt. Adrian's wages, it is a gross mischaracterization of what Sgt. Adrian was, in fact, referring to, namely illicit drugs. ...in an effort to dispel culpability of whitewashing by Sgt. Adrian, another act of whitewashing has been committed therein."
The investigation report concluded that Adrian's actions compromised an investigation and placed the safety and welfare of his fellow officers in serious jeopardy.
As punishment, Adrian was given a four-day suspension.
This article can be found at:
http://venfl.com/features/seajayraid.htm
and the copy of the IA report can be found at: http://venfl.com/features/pdf/seajayraid.pdf