Attorney Explains Reason Drugs Supplied by Officer

The attorney for a veteran Oceanside police officer accused of drug-related crimes said Friday the officer supplied small amounts of cocaine in hopes of gleaning information from a prospective informant. He said the officer should be subject only to administrative punishment by the department.

Officer Rex Nemeyer, 35, has been charged with one count of distributing amphetamines; six counts of distributing cocaine; one count of possessing cocaine, and one count of misappropriating government property. He is scheduled to appear in felony arraignment court Feb. 4 to enter a plea.

Nemeyer, who has not yet been arrested, was placed on administrative leave by the Oceanside Police Department pending completion of the investigation into the allegations against him. Nemeyer’s attorney, Dan Krinsky, said his client is guilty only of “an error in judgment” for giving “very small amounts” of cocaine to a prostitute whom he was “building up to pump as an informant.”

Krinsky identified the alleged prospective informant as Roberta Fierro, who is currently in the Las Colinas County Jail on drug and prostitution charges. Krinsky said Fierro, in hopes of receiving a light jail term, told authorities that Nemeyer supplied her with the drugs.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pent, the prosecutor, also identified Fierro as the woman who received the drugs from Nemeyer, but said the transactions “were not related to the performance of his duty.”

Pent said Nemeyer supplied Fierro with the drugs “for personal reasons that I can’t go into until we go to court.”

The charges were handed down after Nemeyer was given cocaine by two undercover officers from the district attorney’s office, who wanted to see if Nemeyer would return the drugs to the Oceanside Police Department. Nemeyer allegedly failed to return the drugs.

Krinsky said officers patrolling the streets commonly provide confiscated drugs to informants rather than returning them to the proper authorities.

“He should have gone through the proper channels, and he should be reprimanded,” Krinsky said of Nemeyer. “But he should be dealt with administratively. This is not a felony case. He may have done wrong, but he did not do felony wrong.”