Poland pleads not guilty to federal charges
South Lake Tahoe police Officer Johnny Poland pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of witness and evidence tampering.
Johnny Poland
The 44-year-old was arraigned Feb. 14. He was arrested on the federal charges in January, with an indictment being handed down earlier this month.
At the hearing in Sacramento, Poland asked for a jury trial.
“The government asked for modifications to the terms of his release because there are several firearms unaccounted for and there are rumors that he has had contact with a witness,” Lauren Horwood with the Department of Justice told Lake Tahoe News. “The magistrate judge felt there was not enough evidence to modify conditions and admonished Poland to account for his guns.”
Poland’s next scheduled court date is at the end of March. For now he is out on bail. He is on unpaid leave from the police department.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
This guy has guns that are unaccounted for? Swell. Events of this past week with another misguided ex-cop in Southern California are enough to make anyone jumpy. The only good thing about all this is that he is no longer on the public payroll.
Bring on the jury trial Johnny. Ask yourself…”I was sworn to protect and serve” so, is the cost to those that you “swore to protect and serve” no longer pertinent? Or, on all counts, are you wrongly accused? You are free on bail, and most certainly available to comment under a pseudonym, or via a supporter. There is always a page 2. : )
A real man pleads guilty to his crime. However for a guy who likes underage women I guess you really couldn’t call him a man – could you? More like a pervert I would think.
When a law enforcement agency indicts a law enforcement officer, alleging crimes committed by the individual, I gotta believe there is a very strong case against that person. The reasoning behind my thoughts is that the FBI is normally in alliance with police officers. Before an FBI agent would be willing to file criminal charges against a police officer, that police officer’s conduct would first have to be seriously criminal, and second, the case would likely be very provable. Many citizens have great faith in law officers integrity. I do not. I sense that the majority of citizens are now moving towards my beliefs.
ditto bob
Sounds like another cover up to me….
This is a good step in cleaning up something that is long overdue, holding county/city law enforcement accountable for their actions in both sides of the county. With the county Grand Jury’s inability to do their job investigating corruption involving elected politicians and local government, it has to fall on the feds at this point. Corruption is and has been running rampant for decades unchecked and there needs to be some type of system where there is a process to solve long time corruption issues which have been covered up long enough. It needs to go much farther then arresting one low level officer, a federal corruption investigation should be started at the top and work down.