MPS employs criminals on Probation?

[R & S, Inc.]

Here's the article if you missed it. I'd let them have an earfull if
I sent my kids there!!

Four more accused in cocaine ring
By Gretchen Schuldt
of the Journal Sentinel staff
February 6, 1999
Federal prosecutors on Friday publicly accused four more people --
including a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher's aide and a church choir
organist -- of participating in a family-operated drug ring that
distributed a ton of cocaine over the past few years.
The four names released Friday bring the number of people charged in
the 17-count indictment handed down by a grand jury last week to
seven.

The teacher's aide, Timothy Firley, was suspended Friday from his job
at Sholes Middle School pending the outcome of an internal review, MPS
spokeswoman Karen Salzbrenner said.

Firley was charged in the indictment with conspiracy to distribute
cocaine and use of a communication facility to commit a felony.

Also named as a defendant was Shawn J. Jenkins, 28, of Milwaukee.
Jenkins, a car wash owner, is a member of Milwaukee Tabernacle
Community Baptist Church and plays organ in the church choir,
according to a letter from his lawyer, Michael J. Fitzgerald, that was
contained in the court file. In the indictment, which was entirely
unsealed for the first time Friday, Jenkins was accused of conspiracy,
one count of cocaine distribution, one count of distribution of crack
cocaine and one count of use of a communication facility to commit a
felony.

Also charged in the indictment were Odie Brown, 26, of Milwaukee, who
works for a paging company; and Chauncey Cargile, 30, of Milwaukee,
who is unemployed. Brown was charged with conspiracy and possession of
cocaine with intent to deliver; Cargile was charged with conspiracy
and one count of cocaine distribution.

Firley, 30, is the cousin of Lonnie Peterson, 30, who is accused of
being the leader of the cocaine ring.

Charges against Lonnie Peterson, who owns a pager business; his wife,
Cynthia Peterson, who is unemployed; and his mother, Patsy Peterson, a
Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, were revealed by prosecutors last
week.

The indictment accuses Firley of being a distributor of cocaine in
Milwaukee and elsewhere. Firley also delivered drug proceeds to Lonnie
Peterson and his wife at Peterson's direction, according to the
indictment.

Firley "was an integral part of this conspiracy," prosecutor Carol
Kraft told U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia J. Gorence. Firley helped
manage the conspiracy when Lonnie Peterson, who spent much of his time
in Stone Mountain, Ga., was not in town, Kraft said.

Defense attorney Rodney Cubbie said Firley's only criminal record is
for two misdemeanors and that his probation officer "has glowing
things to say" about his compliance.

Cubbie added: "This thing is going to trial. It will not be as easy as
the government thinks it is."

Firley in March was placed on three years of probation with 120 days
to be served in the House of Correction on a work-release program. He
had pleaded no contest in Circuit Court to two misdemeanor charges
stemming from a 1996 incident in which authorities said he choked a
female service station owner and drove his truck toward her husband
several times until he hit the husband with the front bumper and
knocked him into the garage door.

Firley was upset with repairs made to his mother's car, according to
the complaint.

As for the other three defendants named Friday, Jenkins was sentenced
in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 1995 to 30 days in the House of
Correction for a misdemeanor conviction of possession of a controlled
substance. Brown was sentenced in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in
1992 to 20 months in prison and fined $1,000 for possessing a
controlled substance with intent to deliver. Cargile has no criminal
record in Milwaukee County.

In a related matter, court records showed Friday that one woman
already has pleaded guilty to charges related to an earlier indictment
involving some members of the alleged drug ring. She is scheduled to
be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa next month.

Kimberly Johnson, 28, of Milwaukee pleaded guilty last week to
possession with intent to distribute one kilogram of cocaine and
distribution of one kilogram of cocaine. She was arrested in October
after arranging to sell cocaine to a Drug Enforcement Administration
confidential informant.

Arrested with her was her sister, Nicole Johnson, 22, of Batesville,
Miss. Nicole Johnson has been charged with distribution of one
kilogram of cocaine. That case is pending.