Mark Watson and Christie Richardson were partners assigned to a city-county narcotics task unit operated by the Louisville Police Department and the Jefferson County Police Department. (The city and county merged into a single government, known as Louisville Metro, in 2003.)

In 2001, police officials began investigating Watson after learning that he frequently failed to show up for court appearances. His absences forced prosecutors to dismiss some of these cases. Additionally, the investigation found that Watson put in for court pay for some of the dates on which he failed to appear.

On March 14, 2002, the Jefferson County Police arrested Watson and Richardson after they were charged in a 472-count indictment. The counts included bribery, tampering with public records, burglary, perjury, and theft. Officials said their actions included forging the signature of judges on applications for search warrants.

Watson and Richardson had already been suspended with pay, and they resigned from the police force around the time of their arrest. Watson joined the Jefferson County Police in 1992 after working as an officer in Atlanta, Georgia. Richardson joined in 1994. They became work partners in 1998.

The alleged crimes in the indictments occurred between January 2001 and February 2002. In April 2002, prosecutors in Jefferson County dismissed 30 active cases handled by Watson and Richardson and were reviewing others. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, prosecutors ended up filing motions to vacate the convictions of at least seven defendants. Not all these defendants have been identified, but court documents identified five: William Boyer, Walter Elliott, Robert Hardin, Cynthia Jenkins, and George Spencer. None of the named defendants were arrested or convicted during the time period covered in the indictments.

Elliott said in a lawsuit that Watson fabricated a warrant to search the home he shared with his mother, Cynthia Elliott, on January 18, 2000. The search turned up cocaine and three automatic weapons. Prosecutors dismissed the charges against Cynthia Elliott, but Walter Elliott pled guilty to his charges on October 23, 2001, and he received a sentence of 10 years in prison. The Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney moved to vacate Elliott’s conviction and dismiss his charges on March 20, 2002. Elliot was released from prison.

Featured case: Robert Hardin

On March 25, 1998, Watson executed a raid on the home of Robert Hardin. The application for the search warrant Watson filed said that a confidential informant had seen drug activity in Hardin’s house.

During the search, Hardin suffered an angina attack and went to the hospital for treatment. Watson did not find any cocaine at the house, but he did find valium. (Hardin had a prescription.) A blood analysis at the hospital reported no indication of illegal drugs in Hardin’s system.

At an evidence suppression hearing, Watson testified that the confidential informant told him he had seen Hardin smoke marijuana and use cocaine and had seen five drug transactions at the house in the previous 48 hours. A judge denied Hardin’s motion to suppress, and Hardin pled guilty to the charges. Hardin moved to reopen his case after Jefferson County police arrested Watson.

The state checked with the confidential informant named on the payment voucher in Watson’s files; the informant said he did not know Hardin, had never been to Hardin’s house, and had not given Watson any information. Prosecutors then moved to vacate Hardin’s conviction and dismiss his case.

Watson and Richardson were to be tried together in Jefferson County Circuit Court, but Watson pled guilty on January 24, 2003, to 299 felony counts and three misdemeanor counts of the indictment: 21 counts of burglary, 133 counts of tampering with public records, 133 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, five counts of perjury, six counts of felony theft, bribing a witness, misdemeanor official misconduct, misdemeanor theft by deception, and misdemeanor harassing a witness. He also agreed to testify against Richardson.

At her trial, Watson said that Richardson was present when he faked search warrants by photocopying a judge’s signature from old warrants onto new ones. The jury convicted Richardson on February 6, 2003, on 19 counts of tampering with public records and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument, all felonies, and a single count of misdemeanor official misconduct. She received a sentence of one year on probation. Watson received a 20-year prison sentence.

Plaintiffs sought compensation for their wrongful convictions in at least five lawsuits against Watson, Richardson, and the Metro-Louisville Police Department. According to the Courier-Journal, Spencer and Elliott each received $10,000 in compensation. Court documents say that Hardin, Jenkins, and Boyer also settled their lawsuits, although the documents do not disclose the terms of these settlements.

– Ken Otterbourg