Friday, Sep. 11, 2009

Herald probe reveals why Metro drug unit’s leadership changed

By Ken Robertson, Herald Executive Editor

Late in the summer of 2008, Herald reporter Paula Horton learned the Tri-City Metro Drug Task Force was in turmoil, with its leader suspended from work.

That prompted her to start the kind of investigation that only newspapers have done. She asked for the records that would document what was happening.

About a month later, she had a stack of 500 documents to sort through and began the daunting task of making sense of all the elements involved.

Before she would finish her probe, Paula would end up talking with a man who admits to growing hundreds of pot plants underground near Kahlotus and was arrested by a Metro investigation with “a lap full of pot.” But he will serve no jail time for it because of a faulty search warrant.

And she interviewed officers right up to the Pasco and Kennewick police chiefs about what went awry with Metro.

But she also found that despite the internal turmoil, the unit remains highly effective, seizing more than $20 million worth of illegal drugs in 2008 and another $57 million worth so far this year.

And she unraveled the story of just what had derailed the operation of Metro, ultimately culminating in the transfer of the unit’s operations from the Pasco Police Department to the Kennewick Police Department. And the appointment of a new leader.

You can read all about it when Paula’s two-day series kicks off in Sunday’s Herald and online at tricityherald.com.

w Ken Robertson: 582-1520; krobertson@tricityherald.com

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