L.A. Probation Officer Held on Drug Charges : Narcotics: Officials believe the respected juvenile worker has been trafficking in cocaine for most of his career.

A highly respected Los Angeles County probation officer was charged Thursday with offering to sell more than 20 pounds of cocaine to undercover federal narcotics agents, and officials say they believe he has been trafficking in drugs for most of his career.

Michael Cornell Bullard--selected last year as one of the top detention-services officers in the county’s juvenile probation department--was arrested Tuesday after selling the agents a two-ounce sample of the drug for $1,400, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said.

“It’s a shame when an officer goes to the dark side,” Ralph Lochridge, a DEA spokesman, said Thursday. “It’s a sad day for all law enforcement officers.”

Lochridge said the 39-year-old probation officer approached undercover DEA agents in Santa Ana last week and offered to broker a deal involving the sale of 10 kilograms of cocaine for $250,000.

“He said he could get the stuff and sell it to us,” Lochridge said.

When arguments arose, the agents agreed to buy a two-ounce sample of the drug for $1,400 to keep the negotiations moving, investigators said. The sale of the sample was to have been made in Orange County, but Bullard switched signals at the last minute, finally agreeing to meet the agents at a Burger King restaurant in Carson, Lochridge said.

Bullard was arrested without incident when he showed up with the cocaine, the agents said.

After the arrest, the agents searched Bullard’s home in the Carson area, where they found scales and plastic bags of the type used in cocaine trafficking and a loaded .380-caliber pistol, Lochridge said.

Lochridge said the walls of Bullard’s home were covered with plaques from the city of Los Angeles, the state Legislature and Congress commending his work as a probation officer and honoring his courage in preventing the escape of a juvenile during a shooting at a local hospital.

Probation Department officials said Bullard has been working as a detention-services officer for about 15 years, most recently as a ward supervisor at Los Padrinos juvenile hall in Downey. Lochridge said Bullard is believed to have been trafficking in drugs most of that time.

Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf said Bullard would be suspended without pay pending the outcome of his trial.

Charges of offering to sell cocaine and possession of the drug with intent to sell it were filed against Bullard in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday. His bail was set at $1 million.