Fort Worth Officer Fired in Drug Accusations

FORT WORTH — A Fort Worth police officer has been fired on accusations that he illegally bought, and on one occasion ingested, prescription drugs while in uniform and driving his patrol car.
Jerry "J.D." Hall Jr., who had been with the department since 1992, was indefinitely suspended — tantamount to being fired — effective today, according to a letter signed by new Police Chief Jeff Halstead and filed with the Civil Service Commission on Monday.
Attorney Richard Carter with the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas said Hall, 45, has appealed and "will be using his time to resolve his health issues while awaiting his appeal hearing."
"Officer Hall is confident that there will be a resolution during the year 2009," Carter said.
The internal affairs division began investigating Hall in August after an arrested woman being driven to jail told an officer that she had information about another officer named "Jerry" who was buying and using drugs, according to the letter.
The woman picked Hall out of a photo lineup as a person she had seen buy Xanax from one of his relatives and ingest it, the letter states.
The woman told investigators that she saw Hall buy drugs three times in July, twice while in uniform and driving his police car. During one of the on-duty purchases, which took place at an Arlington bingo hall, the woman said, she saw Hall ingest two Xanax pills.
She also told investigators that during the last purchase she witnessed in late July, an off-duty Hall bought what appeared to be "close to 100 pills that would not fit in the bottle."
A narcotics investigation was initiated, and investigators learned that Hall’s relative had been selling Xanax to him for about eight months beginning around December 2007, the letter states.

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