Ex-police officer pleads guilty to aiding in drug robberies

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A former police officer in Tennessee pleaded guilty Friday to giving police information and equipment to civilians who stalked and robbed drug dealers.

Former Memphis police officer Sam Blue, 61, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights by using force, aiding and abetting, violence and conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce, the U.S. attorney’s office in Tennessee announced in a news release.

From 2014 to 2018, Blue conspired with others to rob drug dealers, the office said.

In 2018, several men put on fake police uniforms and used a blue police dashboard light to stop Eric Cain near his apartment, prosecutor David Pritchard said. He said the attackers handcuffed, kidnapped and tortured Cain, demanding to know where he kept his drugs and money. The victim escaped and spent a week in the hospital.

Blue admitted to giving the kidnappers a code to the victim’s apartment complex, Pritchard said. Blue said he wasn’t aware at the time that one of those robberies would lead to a man’s kidnapping and torture, news outlets reported.

Blue is scheduled to be sentenced on May 21. He faces up to life in prison.