The former Detroit cop maintains his innocence, but faces a multi-million dollar bond price.
The 29-year-old former Detroit police officer accused of running a drug ring from Athens to Canada appeared in Athens County Common Pleas Court Monday afternoon to plea his innocence.
Brandon Jorge Allen is charged with twelve felonies, including ten counts of aggravated drug trafficking. Three of those counts are first-degree felonies, alongside the first-degree felony counts of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and aggravated drug possession.
First degree felonies are punishable by up to 11 years in prison and call for a minimum prison sentence of three years. Allen has a prior conviction of witness extortion.
Flanked next to defense attorney Todd Perkins at his arraignment before Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge L. Alan Goldsberry Monday, Allen pleaded not guilty to all of the 12 felonies. Goldsberry set Allen’s bail at $12 million, under the condition that Allen surrender his passport.
According to Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn, Allen has already tried to flee the country at least once. Allen was arrested July 25 at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport while, as Blackburn has put it, he tried to make it to the Dominican Republic.
That arrest capped off a Blackburn-led, multi-state investigation that incorporated help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Office. Blackburn has maintained that Allen kept pill trade in Athens County — especially Glouster — well stocked for local leader Derek James Gyure, who was arrested in May.
"The investigation is still ongoing. There are at least two more people in Detroit," Blackburn told reporters. "We are not going to allow individuals from another state to distribute drugs down here so they can live in their other state."
If the bond will be posted, Blackburn said, the money will be used to locate the whereabout of money Allen earned from drug crimes.
"Hopefully this will send a message to Detroit," he added.
A pretrial conference for this case is set for Sept. 15 at 2 p.m., with a jury trial set for Oct. 7.
