Fort Worth officer says he made a ‘dumb mistake’ in taking items

A Tarrant County jury Thursday afternoon began deliberating the case of a former Fort Worth narcotics unit supervisor who was fired for taking home four pairs of athletic shoes and a video game that were seized at the residence of a suspected drug dealer.

Antoine Jevon Williams, 38, a former police sergeant, told two investigators who interviewed him that he just made “a dumb mistake.”

His attorneys called a current police sergeant to testify on Thursday that narcotics officers often took things from drug dealers that they didn’t log into evidence immediately. It is a violation of policy that might be punished internally but wasn’t considered criminal activity, Fort Worth police Sgt. Kevin Fitchett testified.

Williams was indicted on March 28 on a charge of theft between $500 and $1,500. Penalties for the charge were enhanced to a state-jail felony because Williams was a public servant. If convicted, Williams could be sentenced to two years in state jail and could be ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

On Oct. 16, 2013, Williams supervised the search of an east Fort Worth residence in the 4800 block of Richardson Street where suspected street-level drug dealer Marquis Green lived with his grandmother and girlfriend.

After photographing evidence at Green’s house, Williams went to a planned drug buy that never occurred because that drug dealer didn’t show up, according to police testimony. Williams did not finish working that day until 1 or 2 a.m. Oct. 17, according to his wife’s testimony.

Later on Oct. 17, Williams was called in for interviews with officers from the Special Investigations Unit and the Internal Affairs Division, who investigate complaints against other officers.

On Thursday, Tarrant County prosecutors Tim Bednarz and Rebecca McIntire played a video of Williams’ interview with investigators.

“I have money to buy my own clothes,” Williams said. “It was just a dumb mistake on my part.”

Taking ‘props’ from dealers

Fitchett testified that officers in the narcotics unit often took things they call “props” from drug dealers. The props were typically used later during undercover operations to make officers look more like the criminal element they were attempting to infiltrate, Fitchett said.

“It gives us street cred,” Fitchett said.

From time to time, officers take things from drug dealers and forget to log the items on the inventory sheet, Fitchett said. Fixing the oversight was simply a matter of creating a supplemental form to add to the inventory sheet, Fitchett said.

“There’s nothing wrong with adding a supplement to the inventory,” Fitchett said. “Those usually come a day or so later.”

Fitchett said that one time he took home a small amount of drugs that he forget to log in with the police evidence custodian. Defense attorney Terri Moore called it an “idiot moment.”

Forgetting to log in the drugs was not proper procedure and something that needed to be dealt with by his superiors, but he never faced drug possession charges because of his mistake, Fitchett said.

“No one is prosecuted for that, but you do get punished,” Fitchett testified. “You’d get admonished. There would be some form of internal discipline. But you are not accused of criminal activity.”

Williams’ other attorney, Michael Ware, asked Detective Felicia Yates, one of the investigators who questioned Williams on Oct. 17, about a search warrant for Williams’ residence in Arlington where officers seized the athletic shoes. Yates replied that the warrant was written before she interviewed Williams. Other officers recovered the video game from Williams’ city-issued pickup during the interview and then took the pickup from him.

Green testified on Tuesday that he sold crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, heroin and marijuana in the past. Police found a stack of bills totaling more than $1,000 on his bed during the search of his residence, but no drugs. Police did find marijuana in Green’s vehicle after he was arrested on Oct. 16 during a traffic stop.

Green said he received immunity from prosecution for testifying in Williams’ trial but had to serve 90 days in jail on charges of animal cruelty and evading arrest that resulted partially from the search. Green was not at his residence when the search was conducted, according to testimony.

“This may be the only time that Marquis Green is a victim in a court of law,” McIntire said. “He’s a dog-fighting dope dealer. I don’t think there’s any question about that.”

Jury deliberations are scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Friday in state District Judge Mollee Westfall's court.

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Fort Worth officer says he made a ‘dumb mistake’ in taking items."