Photo courtesy of Wakulla County Sheriff's Office.
The Associated Press reported that former Florida police officer Zachary Wester, 28, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was convicted for planting drugs on innocent people at traffic stops.
Wester was convicted of fabricating evidence and false imprisonment, racketeering, official misconduct, possession of controlled substances and perjury. Of the 67 original charges, Wester was convicted of 19.
During an independent investigation, detectives found marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in Wester’s patrol car. It is believed that he used the drugs and paraphernalia found in his patrol car to plant on his unsuspecting victims. Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reviewed more than 1,300 minutes of Wester’s body-camera videos.
Wester was fired in September of 2018. It is believed that he planted evidence on innocent people between 2016 and 2018 while employed by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. At least 120 cases were dropped because of his actions.
One of his victims, a grandmother named Teresa Odom, spoke at his sentencing hearing.
“You robbed me of my credibility and being a mother and grandmother over the last two and a half years,” Odom said. “I wish you no ill will. But you’ll never know what you did to me until you have children of your own.”
Odom was pulled over by Wester for a broken brake light in 2018. She gave him permission to search her truck, and Wester claimed to have found a bag of methamphetamine in her purse, however, body camera footage video showed Wester putting a bag in the palm of his hand.
Wester’s wife called her disgraced husband a “mighty man of God” while defending his treachery. His friend Michael Montague told the court that we needed more people like him to “bring healthy change to our community.”
Prosecutor Tom Williams disagreed and called what Weber did “an egregious breach of the public’s trust,” per the Tallahassee Democrat.
“People voluntarily grant their government awesome powers they deem necessary for public safety and protection,” said Williams “With that great power comes great responsibility. The defendant made choices to violate that trust and committed crimes against those people he was sworn to protect.”
Wester is likely to find out how it feels to have drugs planted on him while he sits in prison for 12 years. Wester’s lawyer said that they will appeal.