Years of systematic framing of young black men for various crimes have been uncovered thanks to efforts by the Alabama Justice Project, which obtained documents revealing that a Dothan, Ala., Police Department's internal-affairs investigation showing the abuse of power was covered up by the Dothan district attorney, the Henry County Report notes.
Up to about a dozen police officers who were on a specialized narcotics team were found to have planted drugs and weapons on young black men for years while under the supervision of then-Lt. Steve Parrish, who currently serves as the police chief in Dothan, and then-Sgt. Andy Hughes, who is now the assistant director of homeland security for the state of Alabama, the site reports. According to the Henry County Report, all of the officers belonged to a "neo-Confederate" organization referred to as "racial extremists" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The documents reportedly reveal that the internal-affairs investigation was ultimately covered up to protect the officers' careers and save them from prosecution.
As for the young black men who were wrongfully accused, most were prosecuted, a number were given prison sentences and some are still in prison, the Henry County Report notes. The Henry County Report notes that some members of the original group of officers who prompted the investigation, who have requested anonymity, believe that the public should know that the department and District Attorney Doug Valeska have reportedly been targeting these young men by planting drugs and weapons on them for over a decade.
The group of officers who blew the whistle have shared hundreds of files from the original investigation that reveal a startling pattern of abuse and criminal behavior. Many have agreed to testify if U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch appoints a special prosecutor from outside the state, or before a congressional hearing. They believe that there are almost 1,000 wrongful felony convictions from the state's 20th Judicial District, where Valeska is district attorney, related to the framing of these young men.
The criminal activities date back as early as 1996, when the Police Department received complaints from black victims about the planting of drugs and weapons. Young black men who had previously clean records were specifically targeted. Then-Police Chief John White reportedly told senior officers to ignore the complaints.
About two years later, some white officers within the department complained about what they had witnessed, but those complaints also went ignored for almost a year before White turned it over to internal affairs.
According to the report, in August 1999, more than a dozen officers were accused of planting drugs and weapons on black men and falsely arrested. They were made to submit statements in writing to the internal-affairs division and also tested by polygraph, which most reportedly failed.
Despite this evidence, Valeska continued to prosecute those cases involving victims of the framing, without notifying the defendants' attorneys about the allegations.
