A former Indianapolis police officer has been sentenced to four months in a community corrections center for tipping off suspects in a federal drug investigation.
Thirty-nine-year-old Noble Duke was sentenced Thursday by federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who also ordered him to spend six months on home detention and perform 180 hours of community service.
Duke was on the Indianapolis police force from 2001 until he resigned in March.
He pleaded guilty in April to disclosing wiretaps to members of several suspected cocaine-dealing groups. A federal grand jury indicted 36 people on drug trafficking charges in June 2007, but prosecutors said 15 evaded arrest at least partly because they had been tipped off by Duke.
“The court used their best judgment in fashioning the sentence, and Mr. Duke accepts the sentence,” said Duke’s attorney, James Voyles.
Friday, June 06, 2008
No Hard Time For Dirty Cop
Remember that Indianapolis police officer who tipped off drug-dealing suspects involved in the Haughville drug syndicate of grand jury proceedings against dozens? He receives a sentence which includes no jail time. Instead, 39-year-old Noble Duke will spend four months in a community corrections center, six months on home detention and perform 180 hours of community service. Duke was able to secure the legal services of James Voyles, Indy's top criminal defense attorney. The AP reports:
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4 comments:
He had no criminal history, the sentence was well within the sentencing guidelines, and there was no evidence that he received anything in return for the "tipoff". Thus, it was an expected result that would and could have been obtained by any attorney that knows their way around a federal courtroom. Voyles wasn't hired so he could get out of the charges or get less time, but rather because the vast majority of attorneys that actually know how to practice in federal court were conflicted out. To insinuate that something untoward happened because he hired a good criminal defense attorney is a fallacy. It simply doesn't work that way in the federal system. Again, it was the anticipated result for anyone that does any federal criminal defense cases.
Complementing James Voyles as a defense attorney is just that, legaldiva.
The fact that Noble Duke is black probably is why you havent seen him in the media. If he was white, he would have been seen time and again and again.
How does one afford Voyles on an ex-cop's salary?
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