Officers Addicted to Information

Money is an ever-present issue in the War on Drugs, whether for dealer sales, law enforcement bonuses for prosecutions, or illegal officer protection or involvement. Police informants play a central role within the Drug War, sometimes with unexpected consequences to innocent victims.

The very nature of being a police informant requires behavior which shocks and offends the conscience. Police informants must engage in a form of sociopathy; willingly forming duplicitous, mock, friendships with criminals, and potentially engaging in crimes themselves, to complete their part of the bargain with police.

Information is a valuable commodity to law enforcement. The craving for information may take on such importance that it may be likened to a junkie’s addiction to heroin, with secrets as the ultimate high. These dark dealings between the purveyors of illicit information, junkie and dealer, may facilitate, rather than frustrate, crime under certain circumstances.

Under this secret covenant, informants find themselves inherently above the law; enabled and encouraged in, and protected from, their own criminal acts, with the blessings of police officers, so long as the informant continues to peddle their secrets.

Having struck this bargain of impunity for crime, it is only a small leap, in this dark and circuitous logic, for some officers to go to extraordinary lengths to protect their informants when they commit other crimes. When that line is crossed, an officer finds himself confronted by two conflicting interests. Since one interest may be more personal, officers may wind up protecting the guilty and at the expense of victims and justice.

Eighteen year old Gregg Meissner was a friendly high school senior. Gregg made friends with a new guy in town. What Gregg did not know was that his new friend, Shawn Padden, may have been associated with several suicides in Colorado, and despite his new friend’s open hatred for “snitches,” he was, ironically, working as an informant for law enforcement.

On January 5th, 1998, Sharon Meissner came home to find her son, Gregg, bound and hanged. Law enforcement immediately called Gregg’s death a “suicide” and even went so far as to tell Sharon that Gregg had perhaps “hung himself for fun.” Although signs of strangulation were present, typical signs of a hanging were absent, which contradicted the apparent circumstances of Gregg’s death. A contusion was later discovered on Gregg’s head, indicating that he was injured, perhaps in an attack or a struggle, before he died.

Gregg Meissner’s family knew immediately that Gregg had been murdered. Local law enforcement seemed disinclined to get the rusty wheels of justice turning, preferring Gregg’s death to be an easy, open and shut, case of “suicide.” It was as if the criminal justice system, with its intricacies, had become a major obstacle to law and justice, itself.

With the law seemingly on his side, Shawn Padden walked free while the police seemed intent on disregarding potentially incriminating evidence that may have linked Shawn Padden to the scene of Gregg’s death. There are indications that physical evidence was contaminated and even “misplaced” during that police investigation.

Three days after Gregg died, and less than thirty miles away, another young person was found dead, bound and hanged in a manner similar to Gregg Meissner. That death is officially a suicide, according to authorities. The other deaths with which Shawn Padden may have been associated were also bound hangings. Were these inexplicable deaths, which seemed to mysteriously follow Shawn Padden, purely coincidental?

While the Meissner Family struggled with the horror and trauma of the inhumane and violent death of their child, they were further shocked as they began to suspect that the justice system had abandoned them. Was law enforcement protecting Mr. Padden as part of the courtesies and privileges accorded to police informants?

The Meissners found support and assistance from Gregg’s many friends, sought the help of private investigators and attorneys, trying to unravel the mystery of Gregg’s death. As the Meissner’s used up their own resources, seeking justice for Gregg, officers entrusted with those same duties offered nothing but discouragement. The Meissners brought a wrongful death against Shawn Padden, which he eventually settled.

Directly through the perseverance and diligence of the Meissner Family and friends, Shawn Padden was convicted of Gregg Meissner’s murder. On November 9th, 1998, Mr. Padden was sentenced to 25 years in prison and becomes eligible for parole after serving just 16 ¾ years of his sentence. He is scheduled for release from prison in Minnesota in approximately 2015.

There can never be just compensation for the willful and senseless taking of a life. For the family and friends of a loved one lost to violence, the pain and longing never abate. Those who remain in the wake of violent death are changed forever, in countless ways, and in all ways.

To think that Shawn Padden came so close to getting away with murder, or that perhaps law enforcement could have contributed to his presence in the Meissner’s community, or even that police may have been inclined to look the other way because of Shawn Padden’s usefulness to them as an informant, is terrifying.

But the story of Gregg Meissner is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many tales of police corruption touching innocent lives. It is shocking that this culture of information dealing may be making it easier, instead of more difficult, for violent criminals to access their victims, and then hide behind the protective shield of law enforcement.

The use of police informants seems to juxtapose law enforcement on a twisted see-saw of trying to stop crime through the commission of crime. Until there is no more value in information peddling, no more fear to be sold, no Badge of Protection to hide behind, until the Blue Wall of Silence crumbles, society cannot be safe, even from its own police.

With unintended and unexpected consequences associated with the use of police informants, there can be no assurance that the justice system will act in the best interests of victims in every situation. Officers cannot prevent or eliminate crime while at the same time actively promoting and protecting criminals and their activities.

Crimes committed by informants and officers involved in illegal activities are coming under increasing public scrutiny. The details of the Gregg Meissner case can be found at http://www.realcrimes.com. They are a national organization specifically focusing on homicides in which law enforcement corruption is suspected. Many cases remain unresolved and you may be the person with the information that helps bring justice to a victim and their family, making America a little safer for everyone.