Former Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force Officer Pleads Guilty to Firearm and Conversion Charges

A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officer pleaded guilty today to unlawfully possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and later conspiring to misappropriate money seized by the DEA during the execution of a search.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey S. Sallet of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Monte Cason of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG), and Dallas Field Office and Chief Inspector Brian M. McKnight of the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) made the announcement.

Karl Emmett Newman, 50, of Kentwood, Louisiana, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana to a two-count superseding information.  According to admissions made in connection with the guilty plea, Newman unlawfully carried a firearm in furtherance of an August 2015 robbery, which was disguised as an execution of a search warrant of a drug dealer.  Newman further admitted to conspiring to misappropriate money that was confiscated by the DEA during an October 2015 search of the residence of another individual.

Newman was originally charged on May 13, 2016, in an indictment, and was charged with additional offenses on October 7, 2016, in a superseding indictment.  Former DEA task force officer Johnny Jacob Domingue, 28, of Maurepas, Louisiana, was arrested on a criminal complaint on May 12, 2016, and was also charged in the October 7, 2016 superseding indictment with falsifying records in a federal investigation.  Domingue’s case remains pending.

In addition to serving as DEA task force officers, Newman and Domingue previously served as deputies with the Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office.

The FBI, DOJ OIG and DEA-OPR investigated the case.  Assistant Chief Diidri Robinson and Trial Attorney Antonio Pozos of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.