Dozens of Charges Dropped After Deputy Seen on Video Planting Drugs on Innocent People

 Marianna, FL – Earlier this month, Jackson County Deputy Zachary  Webster was fired after an investigation revealed that he planted drugs  on multiple suspects. Now, prosecutors are dropping a least two dozen  different cases that he was involved with after his own body camera  showed him framing innocent people. Last month, The Florida Department of Law Enforcement opened up an  investigation on Wester after body camera footage confirmed allegations  that he planted drugs on innocent people.

 However, the investigation  into allegations of official misconduct is still open, and no charges  have been filed against Wester. State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit said that he believes Wester is guilty after seeing the evidence. “The investigation is not complete. However, I saw a video, and I  saw still photographs captured from that video that caused me to lose  confidence in the cases that the deputy has made. It is an unfortunate  situation. However, as the state attorney, I have a responsibility to  make it right,” Hess told the Tallahassee Democrat. 

In a letter sent out to Webster’s victims, Hess said, “Please be  advised that our office has information that an investigation into the  professional conduct of Deputy Zachary Wester is underway. No  conclusions have been reached, nonetheless, you should be aware of its  existence.” Hess also downplayed the seriousness of the situation by suggesting  that since it was just a drug crime most of these people were looking at  probation. “Basically, we’re dealing with possession of controlled  substances. So I would expect that the people affected would at worst be  on probation. Nevertheless, we are looking at all of the cases and  their outcomes,” Hess said. However, Webster planted hard drugs like meth on many of these people  which can carry steep sentences. Also, this caused problems for many  people who were already on probation. 

Monica Willis has been sitting in jail since March 28 because Webster  planted drugs on her during a traffic stop. Willis was reportedly two  weeks pregnant at the time, and it is possible she may have had to give  birth in prison. Her attorney Robin Myers said that Webster was doing this as a way to turn people into confidential informants. 

“The M.O. seems to be that there’s a traffic stop in which either  a request to search the car is made or the deputy determines probable  cause to search the car. And then upon searching the car, narcotics are  located. At which point the deputy gives the defendant the choice to  either work as a confidential informant or go to jail,” Myers said.  

If you think police officers planting evidence is some anomaly, think again. 

After their department gained national shame last year over a video  showing an officer planting drugs to frame an innocent man while his  fellow cops watched, the Baltimore Police Department showed the world  the dark reality that is framing people to make arrests. Only days after  the first video was released, the Baltimore Public Defender’s office  released a second video that allegedly “appears to depict multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence.”

 It was then announced that nearly three dozen  people will have their charges dropped after the video of Officer  Richard Pinheiro showed him planting drugs while Officers Hovhannes  Simonyan and Jamal Brunson stood by and did nothing. Naturally, the BPD  claimed nothing unscrupulous was going in in the aforementioned videos.

 It is not just Baltimore cops either—as TFTP previously reported,  in one of the most shocking cases of badge abuse ever exposed, the  Alabama Justice Project revealed that a ring of corrupt cops in the  Dothan Police Department planted drugs and guns on hundreds of young  black men for over a decade, in most cases resulting in their  imprisonment. Their actions were aided by supervisors and covered up by  the district attorney.