News
Release
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June
24, 2010
Contact: SA Waldo Santiago
Public Information Officer
Number: (787) 277-4700
Virgin
Island Law Enforcement Officers Indicted
for Operating
and Participating in Criminal Enterprises
Extortion,
Kidnapping and Illegal Narcotics Distribution
JUN
24 -- (St. Thomas, USVI) - Javier
F. Pena, Special Agent in Charge of the
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
Caribbean Division and United States Attorney
Ronald W. Sharpe, District of the Virgin
Islands, announced today that a federal
grand jury returned a 33-count indictment
charging that, Virgin Islands Police Department
(VIPD) Officers Enid Edwards and Francis
Brooks, and Virgin Islands Port Authority
(VIPA) Officer Bill John-Baptiste, in their
capacity as Virgin Islands law enforcement
officers, engaged in illegal activities,
including extortion, bribery, kidnapping,
assault and battery, and illegal narcotics
distribution on the island of St. Thomas,
United States Virgin Islands. The indictment
charges that Edwards and Brooks abused
their positions of trust as police officers
of the VIPD by engaging in illegal activities
for the purpose of enriching themselves.
The
indictment follows a long-term investigation
conducted by a Federal Public Corruption
Task Force. If convicted of the federal charges,
Edwards, Brooks and John-Baptiste each face
a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and $250,000
in fines. The defendants are also charged
with violations of local Virgin Islands laws,
which carry potential incarceration punishment
of a year to life.
The
indictment alleges that from 2000 until 2005,
Edwards and Brooks in their capacity as VIPD
officers, made numerous contacts with drug
traffickers and required that the drug traffickers
pay varying sums of cash money for various
purposes, in exchange the drug traffickers
would not be arrested or otherwise reported
to law enforcement authorities. The indictment
also alleges that Edwards and Brooks acquired
and sold illegal narcotics to a local drug
trafficker.
The
indictment also alleges that in 2007, Edwards
and Brooks, in their capacity as VIPD officers,
forced a person to accompany them as they
drove around the island of St. Thomas in
a police vehicle. The person had to pay them
for the return of the person’s vehicle,
which Edwards and Brooks had caused to be
towed.
The
indictment further alleges that in 2008,
John-Baptiste, in his capacity as a VIPA
officer, physically assaulted and detained
a person against the person’s will
as Edwards and Brooks received cash in exchange
for the person’s release from police
custody. The indictment also charges John-Baptiste
with aggravated assault and battery and unlawful
sexual contact in relation to the incident.
The
indictment also alleges that from 2008 until
the date of the indictment, Edwards and Brooks
made numerous contacts with an unlawful alien
in the United States and required the alien
to pay varying sums of cash in exchange for
which the alien would not be reported to
United States immigration authorities. The
indictment alleges that the alien gave Edwards
and Brooks an old driver’s licence
and cash in exchange for a new Virgin Islands
driver’s licence.
The
federal Public Corruption Task Force comprises
the FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, IRS
CID, USPIS and Virgin Islands Police Department.
U.S. Attorney Sharpe asks that anyone --
citizen or member of the VIPD -- who has
information related to any form of public
corruption to call the task force at (340)
715-6516.
An
indictment is merely a formal charging document
and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant
is presumed innocent until and unless found
guilty.
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