By LANCE MARTIN
rr.spin.com

GREENVILLE – Jury selection in the “Operation Rockfish” trial of Antonio Tillmon, the only defendant in the police corruption case to not enter a guilty plea, begins Sept. 19.

Tillmon, a former officer with the Windsor Police Department, entered the not guilty plea earlier this month, making him the lone hold-out among the 15 total arrested to not admit guilt. The remaining 14, to include seven former deputies with the Northampton County Sheriff’s office and three former correctional officers with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, have all entered guilty pleas and are expected to tentatively be sentenced in September. That list also included a former E-911 dispatcher employed by Northampton County.

Previous court records show Tillmon entered a not guilty plea in Federal Court in Greenville on June 13 to the counts lodge against him, which are as follows:

Count 1- Conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances;

Count 2 – Conspiracy to use firearm in drug trafficking;

Count 28 – Attempted possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance;

Count 32 – Accepting a bribe in the amount of $10,000;

Count 33- Another count of attempted possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance;

Count 34- Use and carry a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime;

Count 36 – Another count of accepting a bribe in the amount of $10,000;

Count 48 – Another count of attempted possession with intent to distribute a controlled substances;

Count 49 – Another count of use and carry firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime; and

Count 54- Another count of accepting a bribe.

Jury selection in the Tillmon trial will be at the federal courthouse in Greenville and begins at 10 a.m. on Sept. 19, according to court records.

The notice of hearing explains counsel shall appear in chambers at 9:30 a.m. that day with their proposed witness lists, which shall specifically identify the names and cities of residence of each witness.

Tillmon will be required to provide reports from expert witnesses to the government no later than Aug. 18.

Pretrial motions are expected no later than Sept. 2.

The estimated time of the trial is seven to nine days, court records show.

The Operation Rockfish police corruption sting contains a 54-count federal indictment that alleges 13 law enforcement officers and two other individuals protected narcotics shipments and cash proceeds during transit along the East Coast for what they believed was a large-scale drug trafficking organization that was actually an undercover operation by the FBI.

The conspiracy was ongoing since around Nov. 7, 2013 until the time of the arrests made on April 13, 2015.

 

(Lance Martin is the Editor and Publisher of www.rrspin.com. This article is published with permission.)