Officer Bernard Hall Jr Arrested for Corruption

A second Benton Harbor police officer was arrested on Friday on similar corruption charges that sent a narcotics officer to prison earlier this year.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Michigan said narcotics supervisor Bernard Hall Jr., 33, of Benton Harbor, faces a three count indictment.

Hall supervised officer Andrew Thomas Collins, who was convicted of planting drug evidence and falsifying search warrants on Jan. 26.

He is serving a 37-month prison sentence.

Hall supervised Collins and other officers in the Benton Harbor Police Department’s narcotics unit, the FBI said.

Hall is accused of working with Collins in falsifying search warrants and planting drug evidence on suspected drug dealers and executing search warrants without proper probable cause.

He also is accused of unlawfully seizing personal property during drug raids and keeping money and property for his own use, Brian Delaney, criminal chief with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said.

Count two of Hall’s indictment alleges that he made false statements during the federal grand jury investigating Collins.

"In particular the indictment alleges that Hall lied when he testified under oath that ‘I’ve never seen him (Collins) take money from anybody" and "I’ve never witnessed him (Collins) do anything illegal," Delaney said.

The third count alleges that Hall made false statements to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office when he claimed he had overseen a drug deal by a confidential informant on Feb. 20, 2007 at 849 LaVette St., Delaney said.

"In truth and in fact" there was no drug purchase made at that time at that location, Delaney said.

Hall resigned from the police department and is scheduled for a hearing Friday in federal court in Grand Rapids.

Benton Harbor Police Chief Al Mingo and officials from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the charges during a press conference Friday morning.

More than 100 drug cases and convictions that the two officers handled are being reviewed by the Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office and by federal prosecutors for possible dismissal.