posted August 6, 2008
Neither side in a federal lawsuit wound up calling fired Chattanooga police officer Lawrence Goodine as a witness. The jury in the case late Wednesday afternoon convicted Leslie Dewayne Allen of all charges.
He faces a mandatory life prison sentence. Judge Sandy Mattice will set the term later.
The case in which the defense accused the former officer of planting crack cocaine on a man he arrested in 2006 went to the jury with no defense proof.
The case went to the jury on Wednesday afternoon after the prosecution finished its case at 11:30 a.m.
Attorney Ownby had told jurors during opening statements that Allen was framed by Goodine, who arrested him. He said Goodine tossed a bag containing crack cocaine near the rear tire of the vehicle in which Allen was a passenger, and then “pretended to find it.”
Prosecutors said Allen told an officer he had possession of the crack cocaine and a weapon at the time of a high-speed chase.
Earlier this year, Goodine was tried in Hamilton County Criminal Court, and a jury found him not guilty of charges that he stole from the people he arrested during traffic stops. He is now in the process of trying to get back his job in the Chattanooga Police Department.
Allen was charged with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and possessing a gun in furtherance of drug trafficking.
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