Early this year, former Department of Public Safety Trooper Jeffery Jerman faced over a decade in jail after he was busted selling anabolic steroids to other members of law enforcement. He was indicted on federal charges involving one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. In separate cases, he faced three felony counts of delivery of a controlled substance under Texas law as well as a steroid possession charge in Kendall County. State and federal prosecutors seemed prepared to crack down on the corruption and participation of a veteran law enforcement officer in an illegal steroid distribution network.
The Texas State Trooper admitted selling trenbolone, nandrolone and stanozolol to a Kerrville Police Officer and pleaded guilty to the three State felony charges. State law stipulates a maximum sentence of 6 years in prison yet prosecutors only asked the judge for a two year prison sentence for Jerman. However, Texas District State District Judge Rex Emerson sentenced Jerman to minimal jail time of 90 to 180 days in jail. Jerman only served three months in Kerr County Jail.
Federal prosecutors, rather than make an example of a corrupt officer participating in black market steroid distribution, worked to get additional charges against Jerman dropped.
State prosecutors in the Kendall County case agreed to drop the steroid possession charges at the urging of federal prosecutors. Unbeknownst to State Prosecutor Lucy Wilke, the Assistant United States Attorney David Shearer then dismissed the federal charges against Jeffery Jerman. Wilke expressed surprise after she was notified of the dismissal by a local newspaper today.
Jerman, a trooper for nine years who was fired after his arrest, had also faced a steroid possession charge in Kendall County, where he lives, and federal charge of conspiring to distribute steroids.
However, the Kendall County case was dismissed in February at the urging of federal prosecutors, who wound up dismissing the federal conspiracy case in April based on Jerman’s conviction in Kerrville.
Lucy Wilke, the state prosecutor in the Kendall County case, expressed surprise Friday that the federal case had been dismissed at the urging of Assistant U.S. Attorney David Shearer.
It is unknown why federal prosecutors choose to selectively pursue some steroid cases that may involve little more than personal steroid possession and use while dropping charges in seemingly more serious steroid cases.
Photo credit: dinglemunch
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