St. Louis Deputy Heads to Prison After Buying Drugs

March 16, 2012
A former St. Louis sheriff's deputy caught buying drugs while armed and in uniform was sentenced Wednesday to two years and four months in prison.

March 15--ST. LOUIS -- A former St. Louis sheriff's deputy caught buying drugs while armed and in uniform was sentenced Wednesday to two years and four months in prison.

Jason Stewart, 32, was a heroin addict already on the radar screen of law enforcement when he was spotted buying drugs on Oct. 4 during an unrelated drug investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said in court.

Stewart also was in uniform and carrying a gun while chauffeuring a drug dealer -- whose name was not disclosed -- around town to sell drugs, officials said. He told a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a St. Louis police officer that at times he even used a sheriff's vehicle, Goldsmith said.

Stewart had been employed by the sheriff's office for almost three years, a spokesman said last year. Prosecutors said he had been buying and using heroin for slightly longer -- at least three years. He had built such trust with drug dealers that he could approach them while in uniform, Goldsmith said, adding, "Most drug dealers would run away from a uniformed law enforcement officer."

Stewart was a "floater" for the sheriff's office, performing various duties. He was fired after his arrest.

Stewart dodged at least one departmental drug test by buying drug-free urine and swapping it for his own, Goldsmith said. He also failed several drug tests after his arrest.

Both Stewart and his federal public defender, Lucy Liggett denied that he had illicitly used a sheriff's vehicle.

Stewart pleaded guilty in December of being a drug addict or user in possession of a firearm, and faced 24 to 30 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Liggett urged probation, saying that Stewart's heroin addiction had cost him "almost everything."

Stewart said that he did not know how to ask for help. "I'm not a bad person. I had a heroin problem," he told U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey.

But Autrey called the case "vile," "hideous," 'sick and wrong."

Autrey said it was shocking that Stewart "is driving the dope man around with a gun, that if things went awry, could have been used for the benefit and protection of the dope man."

He asked Stewart where his allegiance would have been if stopped by police while chauffeuring the drug dealer, or whose side Stewart would have been on had there been a shootout. The judge then supplied his own answer: "Can't say."

In addition to the prison sentence, Stewart has been ordered to undergo drug treatment. He also has a case in drug court on state drug charges stemming from the same incident.

Copyright 2012 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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