Bank records of police officer Baxter Streets show he withdrew $100 in cash with his automated teller machine card just two days after he is accused of pocketing $1,750 in a robbery of a suspected drug dealer.
The testimony by a LaSalle Bank clerk on Monday was intended to raise questions about why Streets would need to withdraw money from his personal account if he had just taken part in the robbery.
The defense opened its case Monday in the corruption trial of Streets and two other Gresham District tactical police officers, Tyrone Francies and Gerald Meachum. Robert Meeks, an alleged drug dealer, is also a co-defendant in the case.
According to the charges, the three tactical unit officers, with Meeks’ help, robbed two drug dealers who turned out to be undercover cops in separate incidents in November and December 1996.
With the government’s most damaging evidence pointing to Meachum, former partners Streets and Francies are attempting to distance themselves from him. In both robberies, their lawyers have contended, Streets and Francies thought they were interrupting drug deals in progress and didn’t know that Meachum stole $23,000 in cash from the two drug dealers.
In other testimony Monday, a corporate event planner for the Midwest International Wine Exposition said the three officers worked together on security details and as laborers at three of its shows in 1995 and 1996.
However, the day after the second alleged robbery, Meachum failed to show up for work at a fourth exposition, the company’s records showed, while both Streets and Francies worked for eight hours that day.
The trial was continued until Monday.
