A California deputy facing up to five years in prison for selling drugs seized during raids issued an apology in a Youtube video blaming satan for his misdeeds.
“I made that decision based on Satan playing games with me, and making me feel like I was prideful and unable to go to family members for help,” Logan August said sitting next to his wife in a video recorded apology to friends, family, co-workers and the community.
According to court documents, while working for the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, August stole marijuana seized in ten raids in 2014, giving the pot to a confidential informant to sell.
Deputy August gave the informant 25 pounds of marijuana, receiving a $15,000 cut of the sales.
Between June 2014 and October 2014, August colluded with a former deputy, Derrick Penny and his informant, as well as former Bakersfield police detective Patrick Mara – who was sentenced to five years in prison last year – when he stole and sold marijuana taken from a locked evidence storage facility.
Penny made out with $1,200 in profit, according to his signed statement.
According to public records obtained through Transparent California, August and Penny earned near $200,000 a year in pay and benefits during 2014.
Both August and Penny, who both joined the department in 2007, admitted to their involvement in the scheme and are scheduled to plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute today at the federal courthouse in Fresno.
The maximum penalty for their crimes is five years behind bars in federal prison in addition to a $250,000 fine, although prosecutors are expected to recommend a lessor sentence as part of a plea deal.
August and Penney used their keys issued by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office to access the department’s marijuana storage unit then sawed off the ends of marijuana plants, placing the top ends into trash bags.
As a condition of August’s plea bargain, prosecutors recommend he be held accountable for 33 pounds of marijuana and that Penny, who has not yet issued a video apology, be held accountable for eight pounds.
“I want to first of all just express how sorry I am to the residents of Kern County and Bakersfield and especially to all the partners that I have with the Kern County Sheriff’s department and all the partners in the Bakersfield city Police Department,” August said during his apology video he posted to Youtube Sunday while sitting next to next to his wife.
“And anybody I ever worked with, anybody that wears the badge that I disgraced.”
Watch the entire apology below.
The post California Deputy Blames Satan in YouTube Apology for Selling Drugs appeared first on PINAC News.