Day 4: Self-Confessed Crooked Cop Testifies Against Tulsa Police Officers

Lori Fullbright, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- The trial of two Tulsa police officers accused of corruption continues Thursday at the federal courthouse in downtown Tulsa.

The prosecution is trying to prove that Officers Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton claimed they had evidence from non-existent informants to bust innocent people.

One witness was on the stand for most of Thursday in the corruption trial of Tulsa police officers Jeff Henderson and Bill Yelton.

Brandon McFadden used to be an ATF agent who worked mostly drug cases in Tulsa with Tulsa officers.

He's everything an officer is not supposed to be.

At one point the prosecutor said, "You were lying to your co-workers, lying to your family, stealing money, selling drugs, what were you thinking?"

He says the first time an officer gave him money at a scene, he took it because of peer pressure, but after that, it was greed.

Brandon McFadden is the kind of dirty cop movies are made about, stealing money from drug dealers, stealing drugs from one dealer and having another dealer sell them, and pocketing the cash.  In one case, he says he stole meth from a dealer's house and then sold that same meth back to the same dealer.

McFadden says he used the extra thousands of dollars to buy everyday things and a pickup. He was forced to forfeit the truck when he was indicted.

8/3/2011 Related Story: Day 3: Key Government Witness Testifies In Tulsa Police Corruption Trial

However, he says he did not do all these crimes alone. He says Officer Jeff Henderson was in it up to his neck and others, too.

McFadden says Henderson is the one who took money and split it with him, the person who snuck drugs out of houses then gave it to a dealer to sell, and who wrote bogus search warrants.  McFadden testified they both lied on the witness stand in federal court, and people went to prison because of it.

He says the people were drug dealers, so he felt the means were justified by the ends.

McFadden didn't testify much about Officer Bill Yelton, other than to say, Yelton and Henderson both threatened McFadden if he talked to the feds, once they learned officers were being investigated.

McFadden has pleaded guilty and faces a minimum of five years in prison. Based on how much he helps in this case, prosecutors could recommend his sentence gets cut in half.

He'll be cross examined by Henderson and Yelton's attorneys on Friday.