Appeals judges uphold conviction against Kentucky constable who planted drug evidence
Federal appeals judges have upheld the conviction of a former Kentucky constable found guilty of planting drug evidence on people to corruptly justify arrests and seizures of property.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down the decision last week against Michael “Wally” Wallace, who was a constable in Pulaski County for more than a decade.
Constables are elected in Kentucky and have full arrest powers. Many do little law-enforcement work, but Wallace was very active, routinely making drug arrests and laying the groundwork to run for sheriff in 2022.
However, Somerset police contacted the FBI in 2018 after officers raised a concern that Wallace might have planted drugs on someone during a traffic stop.
Two officers had searched the man’s car thoroughly and found no drugs, but said Wallace claimed to have found drugs in a small pill container after spending just seconds looking.
Other witnesses testified that Wallace set up a woman on a drunken-driving charge; planted baggies and scales on a man to enhance a drug charge; and took part in falsely arresting an undercover FBI agent on a public-intoxication charge even after another officer gave him sobriety tests and said he wasn’t impaired.
Wallace received a share of money seized in drug cases to use for equipment, vehicle maintenance and other services.
Wallace denied planting evidence on people, but a jury convicted him and another Pulaski County constable, Gary Baldock, of conspiring to violate people’s civil rights and possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it.
The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Parman, argued the two kept meth so they would have it on hand to plant on people.
Baldock, who was scheduled to be tried separately on a charge of shooting an FBI agent when officers went to arrest him, died in jail before he was sentenced.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced Wallace to 11 years and eight months in prison.
Wallace argued in his appeal that 5.9 grams of meth police found at his house when they arrested him was properly stored in labeled evidence bags, indicating he was not holding on to it with an intent to distribute it by planting it on people.
However, the appeals judges said given the overall evidence, the fact that Wallace had meth at his house — rather than storing it at the Somerset Police Department — indicated a desire to have the drugs “readily available to plant.”
“It is the rare trial defendant who does not offer innocent explanations for their conduct,” the judges wrote. “That Wallace stored the drugs in evidence bags did not require the jury to accept his claim that he never intended to plant them.”
Wallace also argued it was improper to enhance his sentence for having a gun in connection with a drug crime.
The appeals panel said Wier did not err in applying that enhancement, however.
“The link between Wallace’s guns and his ability to possess and plant methamphetamine with perceived impunity undermines any contention that his guns were unconnected to his drug offense,” the judges said.
