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Charges have a familiar sound

A man accuses the Tarpon Springs police of planting cocaine on him as they arrested him. It's not the first time he's made such a charge.

By NORA KOCH
Published June 30, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - A man who accused police of planting drugs on him last year has been taken into custody again and this time claims police planted a bag of cocaine found in the back seat of the cruiser he rode in.

The difference now, police say, is he told them where to look.

Police arrested Terry Campsen, 43, Tuesday after a former live-in girlfriend said he beat her because he thought she was involved with another man.

At the police station, as officers prepared to take him to the Pinellas County Jail, Campsen told them "you better search that car" and also told them to give a thorough look to the back seat and floor of the cruiser he had ridden in earlier, according to a police report.

In the cruiser, Officer Barry Wireman found a small plastic bag containing a white powder that tests showed was cocaine, according to police. Campsen told police that it wasn't his and that they had placed it there to set him up, police said.

"I don't know what kind of tricks Mr. Campsen was trying to play, but nobody planted cocaine on him," said Tarpon Springs police Capt. Ronnie Holt. "He can try his allegations if he wants to, but they didn't go anywhere the first time and they're not going to go anywhere this time."

Campsen last year alleged that Tarpon Springs police planted cocaine on him during an arrest. Police arrested him in March 2004 and charged him with giving them a fake name and Social Security number, then found a knife in his pants pocket, records show. They said they found a small piece of a plastic bag containing cocaine residue between the handle and the blade. Wireman was not one of the three officers involved in Campsen's arrest last year.

Campsen said police planted the cocaine-tainted knife on him, and the Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender's Office said he passed a polygraph exam involving his claim. Tarpon Springs police closed an internal affairs investigation after the public defender's office refused to allow Campsen to be interviewed by department officers.

Then Public Defender Bob Dillinger questioned the Police Department's ability to competently investigate the complaint internally and asked the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to take over an inquiry into Campsen's arrest. The Sheriff's Office did not get involved, and Tarpon Springs police Chief Mark LeCouris wrote Dillinger a heated letter defending his agency.

Dillinger's office also turned over Campsen's complaint to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which was in the midst of investigating the department. In September 2003, the agency requested police records on more than a dozen other arrests, many of them drug-related, and in June 2004, the agency requested information about Campsen's arrest. The department later decided not to include that incident in the scope of its investigation, which Holt said Wednesday is ongoing.

FDLE spokesman Rick Morera did not return a call Wednesday about the status of the state's investigation.

Meanwhile, Campsen pleaded no contest in December to charges of providing a false name to law enforcement and possession of cocaine. He was sentenced to the 102 days he had already served and ordered to pay $550 in costs and fines. He was released from jail in December.

This week Campsen was charged with cocaine possession, misdemeanor domestic battery, false imprisonment and committing an unlawful act in relation to a driver's license. On Wednesday, he was being held at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail and had been appointed a public defender who entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.

--Nora Koch can be reached at nkoch@sptimes.com or 727 771-4304.

[Last modified June 30, 2005, 00:59:15]