Charges Against Officer Stun Peers

Law enforcement officials were collectively dumbfounded Tuesday by one of the more unusual aspects of the criminal case filed against former National Football League defensive back Darryl Henley and two of his alleged accomplices.

The news that a guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles was accused of using his federal law enforcement status to escape detection at airport security checks, through which he allegedly funneled large quantities of heroin and cocaine, had many shaking their heads.

“I’m at a loss to explain how he possibly could have done that,” said Patricia Stansberry, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. “It’s kind of unbelievable, actually. None of us has any special status in airports.

“Like a private citizen, we have to follow all the proper airport procedures. We have no special ID card that allows us any special privilege.”

Nancy Castles, the spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport--one of two airports through which Henley’s alleged accomplice is accused of transporting drugs--said the Federal Aviation Administration treats law enforcement officers “like any other passenger,” unless they’re in uniform and working in that capacity.

Quoting an FAA security officer at LAX, Castles said uniformed law enforcement officers “may bypass passenger screening in support of law enforcement functions in commission of their duty.” A second exception permits uniformed officers greater leeway should they need to carry a weapon on board, but only with preregistration and extensive clearances beforehand.

The criminal complaint against Henley and Rodney Anderson, the MDC guard who allegedly helped him, makes no mention of Anderson wearing a uniform or carrying a weapon. Peace officers not in uniform are treated “like any other passenger,” Castles said.

But one high-ranking source in the airline security industry--who asked not to be quoted by name--said Tuesday that peace officers, regardless of rank or station, are routinely permitted clearances that ordinary citizens just aren’t.

Said Jacqueline Nichols, spokeswoman for the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in Long Beach: “We’re not supposed to use our position for our own personal gain, so I would say it’s against policy,” Nichols said. “Is it possible? I won’t comment except to say it’s against policy.”

Linda Thomas, the public information officer at MDC in Los Angeles--where Anderson works as a federal jail guard--was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

The seven-page criminal complaint quotes Henley, who once played for the Los Angeles Rams, as telling an undercover agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that he had known Anderson “for a long time.”

According to the complaint, Henley told the DEA agent that Anderson “could deliver narcotics to Detroit and get narcotics through airports due to his federal law enforcement status.”

The two airports mentioned are Detroit and LAX. Officials in Detroit could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Contacted at his Washington home Tuesday night, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons conceded that a jail guard such as Anderson could have presented his work identification card--which bears his photograph, thus verifying his status as a federal peace officer--and passed through an airport security area uninspected.

“But,” said spokesman Daniel Dunne, “it would depend more with the individual security person at whatever airport you’re talking about. As to whether it occurred at one or more airports, I don’t know . . . I wasn’t there. I should also tell you that, in a situation where there’s been an indictment, there’s only limited information I can give out anyway.”

The high-ranking security source said peace officers are routinely allowed passage through airport security areas, which are maintained by the airlines that use the terminals and not by the airports themselves. “It’s a professional courtesy,” said the executive, whose company handles security at several California airports.

It was even possible for minor airline-industry employees to travel without customary security checks, the source said, until a December 1987 incident that triggered a plane crash in Northern California--after which security affecting airline employees tightened considerably.

In 1987, David A. Burke, an ex-USAir employee, used his badge to get on a Pacific Southwest Airlines flight, where he shot his former boss and attacked the pilot. The plane crashed in the rugged coastal back country of San Luis Obispo County, killing all 43 aboard.

The executive said security checks are calculated primarily to uncover guns or bombs, so even a private citizen carrying 1.5 kilograms of heroin--the amount cited in the Henley indictment--might go undetected, whether the smuggler was a peace officer or not.

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This story has been edited to reflect a correction to the original published text. It was an ex-USAir employee, not a fired PSA employee, that boarded a plane and attacked the pilot in 1987.

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