EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — East St. Louis' former police chief was sentenced Friday to a year in federal prison by a judge who said he was convinced the officer's theft of video game players during an FBI sting operation wasn't his first flouting of the law.
U.S. District Judge David Herndon rejected requests by Edward Baxton Sr.'s attorney for probation and court-ordered community service. Instead, he meted out the punishment that prosecutors sought for the 18-year police veteran's breach of the public trust.
Investigators said Baxton lied when confronted by federal prosecutors about stealing Xbox gaming consoles from a car that had been reported stolen in October. The vehicle was actually a decoy set up by FBI agents as part of a sting to test the then-chief's integrity. Baxton didn't know the theft had been secretly recorded, and he pleaded guilty in January.
"This defendant has not been in honest public service for some time," Herndon said during a sentencing hearing.
Baxton's attorney, John O'Gara, had argued Friday that the public scorn levied on his disgraced client and his ruined career was punishment enough. But Herndon disagreed, pressing that Baxton's breaking laws he was sworn to uphold "represents the culmination of bad acts." Herndon said such cases enflame questions about corruption and deter potential tourists from coming to communities out of fear they could be hassled by police.
Baxton, 49, apologized in court to his family, prosecutors and the communities affected by his misdeeds, appearing to tear up before telling Herndon "today is a very sad day for me. It's very disheartening." When he heard the sentence, a seated Baxton pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
Baxton resigned from his job in East St. Louis in January, just a day before he pleaded guilty to felony counts alleging he stole Xbox 360 games last October. At the time of the crimes, he was serving as police chief in the neighboring village of Alorton and lied to federal investigators about the case.
Just months after being hired in Alorton nearly a year ago, officers there confided to the FBI that Baxton was giving favorable treatment to some arrested suspects, federal prosecutors alleged. Baxton also was suspected of stealing evidence from his department for his personal use or profit.
Baxton lost his Alorton job nine days after Xbox thefts, when a state board barred him from law enforcement because of felony theft and burglary convictions against him in 1982 in Madison County. Baxton sued, and a St. Clair County judge cleared him in November to again work in law enforcement after concluding his criminal record had been expunged.
Less than two weeks later, Baxton was rehired as East St. Louis' police chief.
In January, when questioned by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service, Baxton denied any on-the-job stealing and, after being told by the federal agents that they knew the Xbox consoles had been pilfered, he blamed the other officer with whom he responded to the decoy car. Baxton then came clean, admitting the thefts.
On Friday, Herndon concluded that had the FBI persisted in surveillance of Braxton's activities with such stings, the charges against him quickly could have mounted.
For Baxton, the judge asserted, "this (theft) had all the hallmarks of standard operating procedure."