Dothan, Al., Police Chief Steve Parrish labelled as “misinformation” and “outright lies” a blogger’s report that Parrish, District Attorney Doug Valeska, former Sheriff Andy Hughes and others in the city’s police department were involved in planting drugs and other evidence on black men during criminal investigations, the Dothan Eagle reports. Jon Carroll of the Henry County Report said that a group of up to a dozen police officers on a narcotics team planted drugs and weapons on young black men for years, under Parrish’s supervision. The officers reportedly were members of a Neoconfederate organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels “racial extremists.” The information was attributed to documents obtained by the Alabama Justice Project.
Parrish said, “While the photo copies of the documents posted online from Mr. Carroll appear to be authentic in nature they are arranged and redacted in a way to promote his agenda.” Parrish said the incident occurred in the 1990s, and that an officer mentioned in the blog post has not worked at the department since then. Parrish challenged Carroll to post names of people who claimed to have had drugs and evidence planted on them.