Police allege man planted cocaine in couple's truck

Charges dropped against victims

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Benedict Ignatius Clarke, 72, faces arraignment next month on charges including the distribution of cocaine, a felony issued with a summons after narcotics detectives reinvestigated the matter at the request of the state's attorney's office.

St. Mary's prosecutors have dismissed initial cocaine possession charges and subsequent felony charges of the possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute that were filed last November against Brandon Luther Brooker, 29, and 25-year-old Ashley Dawn Brooker.

They were released on bond three days after their arrest.

"It cost me a lot of money [and] almost my job," Brandon Broker said this week of their ordeal with the criminal justice system.

The indictment filed against Clarke alleges that he conspired to distribute the drug with Regina Ann Gatton, identified in police reports as a 42-year old Hollywood woman who called the St. Mary's Crime Solvers hotline on Nov. 2 to tell them about the pickup truck carrying the cocaine.

Police reports state that Gatton, identifying herself as a former employee at a judge's office in Prince George's County, has acknowledged that Clarke called her that day to tell her he had put cocaine under the pickup truck's seat and for her to telephone the sheriff's office.

Lawmen acting on the tip stopped the truck on a Mechanicsville road after it left a hotel, and they found 10 small plastic bags of cocaine with a total street value of $1,000, police reports state. The Brookers insisted from the onset that they had no knowledge that the drugs were in the vehicle.

In May of this year, police reports state, sheriff's deputies were investigating a burglary reported at Clarke's home when he told them of his acquaintance three years earlier with Ashley Brooker.

Gatton told police this month that Clarke spoke about a year ago about taking cocaine he'd purchased to North Carolina and planting it in the Brookers' possession, but Clarke had a car accident and returned home, according to a narcotics investigator's report.

Clarke pursued a new plan, the police report states, when he learned that the couple was visiting St. Mary's County.

Clarke said this week that he could not comment on the matter.

"I don't know anything about it," Clarke said. "I ain't talked to nobody yet. I can't tell you nothing."

No charges against Gatton have been reported from the investigation.

State's Attorney Richard Fritz said the Brookers submitted to a polygraph examination after their lawyer asserted their innocence, and that narcotics detectives advised the prosecutor to proceed no further with the charges against the couple.

"Sometimes, protecting the innocent requires more time gathering facts than prosecuting the guilty," Fritz said.

"This is a good reason," he said, "for everybody to lock the doors on their car."

jwharton@somdnews.com