ARA

2007 Nominees

Postal Inspector John Bailey, Birmingham:
In 2007, this postal inspector was instrumental in making two key arrests. The first involved a counterfeit check scheme, which victimized 13 businesses and cheated eight Birmingham-area banks out of at least a half million dollars. As a result of Bailey’s investigation, the counterfeiter and the person who recruited homeless and drug addict runners to cash the checks were arrested in August. In June, two days after a robber pointed a gun at the Ralph postmaster and then bound her hands, Bailey’s investigation resulted in an arrest. The robber is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

Nominated by: Postal Inspector R. F. Dyer

Cpl. T.E. Bester, Montgomery Police Department:
While on special patrol because of numerous business burglaries in or near the Shoppes at EastChase in Montgomery, this corporal stopped a man who turned and walked the other way when he saw the patrol car. While conducting the field interview, Cpl. T.E. Bester discovered the man had in his possession a claw hammer, screwdriver and a pair of pliers as well as jewelry with the price tags still attached. The suspect, a crack addict, was charged with 11 counts of third-degree burglary, one count of first-degree theft of property and four counts of second-degree theft of property. A search of the suspect’s residence turned up some of the more than $8,000 in cash and property taken in the burglaries.

Nominated by: Montgomery Police Chief A.D. Baylor

Sgt. Gary Carmichael, Bessemer Police Department:
Because of this officer’s superior interviewing techniques, the city of Bessemer was able to clear 15 burglary cases in March. During questioning by then-Detective Gary Carmichael, a suspect confessed to the burglaries of downtown Bessemer businesses. The detective became a sergeant in May and now supervises the Bessemer Police Department’s Community Services Unit, which works with local businesses and schools. He’s also been selected as “Officer of the Month” on several occasions, is a member of the Bessemer Child Death Review Team and the Bessemer Division Domestic Violence Task Force and serves as a police department recruiter.

Nominated by: Bessemer Police Chief Nathaniel Rutledge Jr.

Detective Sgt. Duane Cox and Officer Marlon Tolliver,
University of Alabama at Birmingham Police Department:
Good police work by these two university police officers resulted in one of the largest identity theft cases made in the southeastern United States. In late June, Officer Marlon Tolliver stopped a man wearing a fake beard, wig and sunglasses as he left the ATM area at the university. The man had a gun, $1,500 in $20 bills and 42 discount department store gift cards in his possession. Detective Sgt. Duane Cox notified the U.S. Postal Service Identity Theft and Computer Crimes Task Force, of which he is a member, that UAB investigators believed this former bank computer programmer had reprogrammed the gift cards to withdraw funds from ATMs. The resulting multi-agency investigation revealed the suspect had stolen a database containing names, account numbers and customer service passwords of bank account holders. Investigators recovered 200 additional gift cards from a major discount retailer and a major home improvement retailer containing the stolen debit card information along with a computer containing thousands of stolen identities. Withdrawals using the reprogrammed cards were made in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. In July, the man and a female accomplice were indicted on 14 counts, including aggravated identity theft, bank fraud and access device fraud.

Nominated by: University of Alabama at Birmingham Police Chief Anthony B. Purcell; Capt. Aubrey Glasscock, Criminal Investigations commander,
UAB Police Department 

Sgt. Susan H. Everett, Tuscaloosa Police Department:
This 28-year veteran of the Tuscaloosa Police Department has supervised the Financial Crimes Unit within the department’s Criminal Investigations Division since 1995. As of early October, her unit had cleared 594 of 1,507 assigned cases and made 158 arrests. Sgt. Susan Everett was the Alabama Retail Association’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2002.

Nominated by: Assistant Police Chief R.G. Dunn and Lt. Clayton H. Gibbs,
Tuscaloosa Police Department

Sgt. David Fuller, Gadsden Police Department:
This supervisor of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Gadsden Police Department played a major role in bringing closure to the cases against two large organized theft groups plaguing the Lowe’s stores in Gadsden. He also is working on a case involving a 15-member theft ring that has cost stores throughout the Southeast in excess of a half million dollars. Daily, he works with business owners and local officials to educate the community about the costs of retail theft and the recognition of these offenses.

Nominated by: Sixteenth Circuit District Attorney Jimmie G. Harp Jr.;
Assistant District Attorney Carol L. Griffith; Jason S. Harbian, Lowe’s Loss Prevention; state Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla

George Grubbs, drug inspector, Alabama State Board of Pharmacy
This retired Birmingham police officer has been a drug inspector for the Alabama State Board of Pharmacy for 23 years. He works with local law enforcement as well as loss prevention and risk management departments to combat drug diversion, impairment, fraud and theft. During his more than two decades working for the pharmacy board, he has built a network of contacts in the pharmacy world and has been able to prevent many crimes just by his presence, according to his nominators.

Nominated by: Herb Bobo, secretary, and Henry A. Burks, chief investigator,
Alabama Board of Pharmacy

Trooper Gary Hicks, fraud investigator,  Alabama Department of Public Safety Driver License Division, Decatur District:
This charter member of the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s Driver License Fraud Unit is also part of the department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287g program. As a top graduate of the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement School and two-time Trooper of the Quarter, Trooper Gary Hicks has developed a knack for identifying illegal immigrants. Seven illegal immigrants confessed their true identities due to Hicks’ interviewing and investigation skills as well as his knowledge of Puerto Rico. In addition to those seven immigration arrests this year, he’s been responsible for 55 misdemeanor arrests, 23 felony fraud arrests and four other felony arrests.

Nominated by: Lt. Ricky Dale

Investigator Missy Lackey, Huntsville Police Department:
This 22-year veteran of the Huntsville Police Department specializes in retail shoplifting and employee theft cases in Huntsville’s largest and busiest precinct. In the past year, Investigator Missy Lackey has been responsible for 50 retail theft arrests. Late last year, Lackey got four Nashville women to confess to stealing a felony amount of merchandise from Burlington Coat Factory and fighting with store employees who tried to detain them. She’s also made arrests in MP3 and DVD theft cases at Belk and Target. Since its inception in 1999, Lackey has worked with Operation Safe Shop, an overtime detail involving marked and plainclothes police officers patrolling mall and shopping center parking lots during the holidays.

Nominated by: Huntsville Police Chief Henry J. Reyes

Trooper Darrell Linder, traffic homicide investigator, Alabama Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division, Grove Hill Post:
In March, this state trooper, who routinely investigates deaths, helped save two lives. Trooper Darrell Linder just happened to be in the area, and responded to a Jackson Police Department call, arriving first at a home day care, where two boys had fallen into a backyard pool. He immediately began CPR on one boy who already had been pulled from the pool. Once that child was taking slow breaths, he moved to assist a Jackson police officer who had begun CPR on the second child. The trooper continued chest compressions while ambulance personnel used breathing bags to breathe for the second child. Trooper Linder’s investigations have led to murder, vehicular homicide and manslaughter convictions. He also trains new troopers in his area and fills in as acting corporal when his supervisor is not available.

Nominated by: Cpl. Roy B. Napp, Alabama Department of Public Safety,
Highway Patrol Division, Grove Hill Post (251) 275-3249

Officer Wayne Lloyd, Warrior Police Department :
This officer literally put himself in the path of a robber and in doing so, stopped a five-month robbery spree of Dollar General and Family Dollar stores in Birmingham, Pelham, Trussville and Leeds. In March, seven members of the Warrior Police Department, who had just left municipal court, responded to a report of a robbery at the Dollar General on U.S. 31. They knew the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force had been looking for a man known as the “Dollar General Robber,” who in earlier robberies had shot one store manager and fired at another. After a foot chase, Officer Wayne Lloyd positioned himself in front of the suspect’s getaway vehicle and ordered him to get out of the car. When the suspect tried to run down the officer, Lloyd fired five rounds into the front windshield. Three and a half hours later, the suspect was found dead in his car. The “Dollar General Robber’s” reign of terror had ended and 19 robberies were cleared.

Nominated by: Warrior Police Chief Raymond J. Horn

Trooper Michael McBrayer, Alabama Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division,  Decatur Post:
Within an 11-day period in March, this state trooper had nabbed two kidnappers, returned the kidnapped child to his legal guardian and arrested two people who confessed to counterfeit production of more than 75 DVDs and CDs. Twenty-seven minutes after Bessemer police put out a lookout for a vehicle involved in a kidnapping stemming from on ongoing custody dispute, Trooper Michael McBrayer stopped the green Ford Explorer on Interstate 65 in Cullman for speeding. As a result, the 3-year-old was reunited with his father, who had legal custody, and the mother and another man were charged with second-degree kidnapping. Eleven days later during a routine traffic stop, McBrayer noticed the driver and passenger were unusually nervous and discovered a bag of music CDs that appeared to be counterfeit. Upon further search, he found 75 motion picture DVDs and hundreds of blank CDs, DVDs and empty cases, indicating intent to produce copies.

Nominated by: Sgt. Tim White, assistant post commander, Decatur Post,
Highway Patrol Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety

Trooper Norbert Neeley, Department of Public Safety Driver License Division,  Selma and Tuscaloosa Districts:
As the hearing officer for the Selma office of the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s Driver License Division, this 19-year trooper veteran has overseen evidence collection and prosecution of numerous individuals charged in Chilton, Dallas, Lowndes, Marengo, Perry and Wilcox counties with felony fraud. He also serves as a field training officer.

Nominated by: Sgt. Debra F. Cheatum, post commander, Tuscaloosa District,
Driver License Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety 

Investigator Shelby O’Connor, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office:
Since February 2005, Shelby County Sheriff’s Investigator Shelby O’Connor has been assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division, specializing in computer forensics and white-collar crimes. She recently completed an identity theft case involving 25 Shelby County victims and the loss of more than $150,000. In the case, she helped identify a hospital employee who had stolen patient information to establish accounts and charge merchandise at two major home improvement retailers. She also is assigned to the Postal Inspectors Identity Theft Task Force and spoke at the 2007 Metropolitan Identity Theft Summit in Birmingham. She is involved in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics and represented Alabama in October in the International Final Leg of the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run in Beijing, China.

Nominated by: Capt. Stan Chapman, Uniform Division, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

Trooper Steven Smith, Alabama Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division,  Mobile Post:
In the past year, Trooper Steven Smith has made 80 driving under the influence arrests, almost double the number of arrests made by any other trooper assigned to the Mobile Post of the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol Division. He is a founding member of the Mobile Task Force Zero DUI Enforcement Program and a member of the DPS Tactical Team.  In April, he and another officer apprehended a murder suspect who killed four people in Louisiana.

Nominated by: Capt. James D. Lyons, Troop I Commander, Mobile Post,
Alabama Department of Public Safety

Trooper Thomas Underwood, Alabama Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division, Huntsville Post
Four vehicles crashed as Trooper Thomas Underwood patrolled U.S. 431 in Guntersville in August. When he saw one of the vehicles catch fire, the trooper quickly pulled the driver to safety, keeping the driver from being seriously burned. Then, he helped other injured victims until medics arrived.

Nominated by: Sgt. Brant Barnett, assistant post commander, Huntsville Post,
Highway Patrol Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety 

Trooper Nicholas S. Welden, Alabama Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division, Jacksonville Post:
In a span of a year, this Jacksonville-based trooper received the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s Life Saving Medal and was recommended for a Director’s Commendation. The first to arrive after a car ran off DeKalb County Road 678 near Henagar, crashed into a tree and caught fire, Trooper Nicholas S. Weldon pulled the driver and the passenger from the car as flames licked at the car’s front dash. He had to break a window and bend the window frame to get them out, cutting his own arm in the process. Ten months later, Weldon volunteered to stop two leaders of the “Free Militia” on a seemingly routine speeding stop to detain these dangerous individuals while other law enforcement officials searched locations where they were known to be manufacturing illegal explosives. Even though one of the men was armed, the suspects were detained without incident and the searches resulted in the seizure of 130 hand grenades, 68 launchable grenades, a machine gun, a sawed-off shotgun, two silencers and many more conventional weapons.

Nominated by:  Capt. John Henderson, Troop E, Jacksonville Post,
Highway Patrol Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety 

Trooper Jimmy White , Alabama Department of Public Safety Driver License Division, Birmingham District:
This trooper’s supervisor and former supervisor’s describe him as a “dream employee.” He’s on time, does his job plus jobs not assigned to him, goes the extra mile for victims and steps in at the first sign of trouble in the office. For eight years, he was a member of the Birmingham State Trooper Tact Team, arresting more than 25 armed felons and rescuing hostages. Now, he’s a driver license fraud officer, who has kept drivers licenses from being issued to deported felons and those using social security numbers of the dead. He even started a driver license fraud unit in Shelby County.

Nominated by:  Lt. T.D. Laird Jr., Birmingham District commander,
Driver License Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety

Cpl. Jessie Williams, Alabama Department of Public Safety Driver License Division, Dothan District:
This 22-year veteran of the Alabama Department of Public Safety made 11 felony and 22 misdemeanor arrests through September 2007. For the past 11 years, he’s served in the Dothan District Driver License office.

Nominated by: Sgt. Teddy Fain, post commander, Dothan District,
Driver License Division, Alabama Department of Public Safety