Drug Dealing ‘Maverick’ Police Chief Pleads Guilty To Beating Suspect

11.18.2015 | Surge Wire |

A former assistant Alabama police chief faces major prison time after beating a suspect and stealing drugs to sell them to a local dealer.

Chris Miles, the former Tallahassee officer in question, pleaded guilty Tuesday to “beating a suspect with a phone book-sized packet of paper during an interrogation,” according to the Department of Justice. He also hit and slapped the suspect with his hand and lied to an FBI agent. Miles pleaded guilty to stealing 16 pounds of marijuana from the evidence room and selling it to a drug dealer for $4,000.

Miles was originally arrested for allegedly breaking into a gas station. He also worked as the evidence technician for the police force, but his bad conduct was used to get dozens of charges thrown out, ABC 8 reports. For the case of an accused child rapist in 2013, Miles’ bad behavior got the charges dropped from 105 counts down to five since his role in the case brought so much evidence into question. A grand jury eventually got the charges back up to nearly 20 and the rapist pleaded guilty in August of 2015.

“Miles was a maverick, working outside the law,” U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama, said in a statement.

Miles could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the count of deprivation of rights as well as up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,ooo for each of the other counts.

“The defendant intentionally violated a man’s fundamental civil rights and threatened to weaken the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system when he decided to beat a suspect into a confession, and to further engage in narcotics trafficking,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

Follow Casey on Twitter and like him on Facebook

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.