Ex-officer who testified suffers own trials (admission officers planted guns)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Tue, Jun. 24, 2008
Ex-officer who testified suffers own trials
By DAN CHRISTENSEN

After retired police officer William Hames finally came clean about the gun-planting coverup that rocked Miami this decade -- and helped federal prosecutors convict seven fellow dirty officers -- he sought to pick up the pieces of his life.
Instead, they fell apart.

Two city pension funds voted to strip Hames of retirement benefits, citing his 2004 felony convictions in a case in which his cooperation spared him from prison. They demanded Hames, 60, repay the $548,000 he had received since leaving the force in 1998 after 25 years.

Hames, stocking shelves full-time at Publix to comply with the terms of his probation, hired an attorney and tried to fight back, but the law was against him.

On Feb. 21, two weeks before a Miami appeals court upheld a city forfeiture order, the Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic pointed a 9mm handgun toward his face and pulled the trigger in his Orlando-area home.

The blast blew out his left eye, but Hames lived.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/580785.html

[Downtown Hound]

1. Sad story. The man did some terrible things,

but was and is obviously a suffering human being. I hope he finds his way someday.