ST. LOUIS • A former Hillsdale
police lieutenant was sentenced Thursday to 46 months in federal prison for
robbing a drug courier, prosecutors said.
Parrish D. Swanson, 41, of the
100 block of Hereford Avenue in Ferguson, pleaded guilty in August to one count
each of conspiracy to distribute heroin and one count of attempting to
distribute heroin.
Prosecutors say Swanson agreed
to help someone he believed to be a drug dealer rob a drug courier in Hillsdale
in exchange for cash. He then recruited Officer Raymond Stephens to do the
robbery, they said.
Stephens, who was on duty and
in uniform, robbed the courier of four ounces of what they believed to be
heroin and swapped the drugs for $900, they said. Swanson, who was also on
duty, got $200.
It "doesn’t get much worse
than that," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who prosecuted the
case, wrote in a court filing.
Stephens, 29, of St. Charles,
pleaded guilty in August to the same charges and is scheduled to be sentenced
Friday. He faces the same range of punishment under federal sentencing
guidelines: 46 to 57 months in prison.
Hillsdale is a village of about
1,400 people in north St. Louis County.
