compton_police_sized A Compton Police Department internal affairs investigation report from 1999—just obtained by The Compton Bulletin—reveals that corruption within the department’s narcotics unit was identified in the months leading up to its eventual demise. The nearly 100-page report details an investigation that was launched shortly after Chief Hourie Taylor and Capt. Percy Perrodin were placed on administrative leave.

While Taylor was removing his personal belongings from the station, two of four kilos of cocaine that had been seized in a case dating back to 1992 and should have already been destroyed were found in a drug vault locker in which Taylor had indicated he might have personal belongings. Besides highlighting poor oversight and a slew of deficiencies and improprieties stemming from the absence of rules and regulations over the narcotics unit, the investigation revealed that three kilograms of cocaine were either stolen or lost from the department’s narcotics vault. The missing drugs had a street value of roughly $51,000.

Also probed was the alleged release of 60 kilograms of cocaine seized on April 23, 1997, to the FBI, which the investigators had been unable to verify as of the more than month-long investigation’s conclusion.

Implicated as responsible to varying degrees by the investigators were Taylor, Perrodin, Lt. Reginald Wright Sr., Sgt. William Mosley, Sgt. Robert Baker, Sgt. Henry Robinson and Sgt. John Wilkinson. All were responsible for overseeing the narcotics unit, but none were aware that three kilograms of cocaine had disappeared, according to the report.

Also named is officer Arnold Villarruel, who remained under investigation as possibly being responsible for the missing drugs at the close of the investigation, according to the report.

Taylor, who said he did not have the combination to the vault and only visited it to access the buy-fund money and complete audits, was documented as having visited the vault alone and for no reason 172 times between Jan. 27, 1989, and Aug. 23, 1999. Taylor denied having ever visited the vault alone, but on these 172 occasions, his is the only name written in the logbook, according to the report.

When he was interviewed, Taylor denied that two kilos were found in the locker he thought he had personal items in despite several other members of the department who were present telling investigators that there were two kilos inside. Also probed was the alleged release of 60 kilograms of cocaine seized on April 23, 1997, to the FBI, which the investigators had been unable to verify as of the more than month-long investigation’s conclusion.

READ THE ENTIRE STORY BY ALLISON JEAN EATON / COMPTON BULLETIN