Allegations that two Chattanooga police officers conspired to plant crack cocaine on two suspected gang leaders swirled today in a federal drug trial — even before opening arguments.

“You’re going to see a video of an officer planting drugs,” defense attorney Ashley Ownby told potential jurors during jury selection. The trial, he said, would focus on “police misconduct.”

Leslie Allen is on trial on charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

Former Chattanooga police officer Lawrence Goodine arrested Mr. Allen during a 2006 traffic stop in which Mr. Goodine said he found about 10 grams of the crack and a gun.

But Mr. Goodine — who himself was acquitted by a jury earlier this year on charges he had shaken down drug dealers during traffic stops — is being blamed for conspiring with his former partner to plant the drugs.

“They were robbing from people they didn’t like,” Mr. Ownby said in his opening arguments shortly before the lunch hour. “This is a bad cop doing a bad thing.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Winne told jurors in his opening statements that Mr. Allen has two prior felony convictions for possession of crack cocaine, and even confessed to the current charges in 2007.

“We don’t think you’re going to see” anything in the video that suggests any drugs were planted, Mr. Winne told jurors.

U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice allowed Mr. Allen to withdraw his guilty plea in the case last fall in the wake of allegations that Mr. Goodine acted improperly during traffic stops.

While a jury acquitted Mr. Goodine earlier this year of eight counts of theft and official misconduct and one count of perjury, Mr. Ownby argued that Mr. Goodine’s record “casts doubt on the culpability of my client.”

See tomorrow’s Times Free Press for complete details.

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