Ex-Texas officer gets probation for planted drugs

BRYAN, TX (KTRK) -- A former Central Texas police officer has been sentenced to five years of probation for having drugs planted in his ex-wife's vehicle during a 2011 custody dispute.

A jury in Bryan last week convicted ex-Madisonville police Sgt. Jeffrey Covington of retaliation. Covington on Monday reached a sentencing agreement for probation and also must serve 30 days in jail, plus give up his peace officer's license. Drug and official oppression charges were dropped.

Laura Covington was charged with drug possession following a November 2011 traffic stop.

"We lived in fear for a long time," she told Eyewitness News.

Her fear hasn't vanished all together, but it's receding.

"One day you're sad and depressed, you're sad; the next day, you're like this can't be reality," she said.

In 2011, she was pulled over in Madisonville, Texas, her hometown of 5,000 people. A search of her car turned up methamphetamines, but it wasn't hers.

"He said under oath, this is the trooper... I do not believe those were hers," attorney J. Paxton Adams said.

Through a child custody hearing, evidence would find Laura's ex-husband, a sergeant with Madisonville Police Department orchestrated a scheme with other Madisonville police officers to "plant drugs on Laura ... and have her arrested ... to gain custody of his two children."

She was seven months pregnant at the time and went straight to jail.

"I think the very absolute worst was having my kids taken away for five weeks," she said.

Laura didn't stop fighting to get her children back. Hair follicle samples on her came back negative for drugs. Her charges were dismissed. Through an investigation, Texas Rangers found Jeffrey Covington and another officer "summoned a local criminal," supplied him with drugs, then told him "how and where to plant the drugs" on Laura's car.

"He will never wear a badge again," Adams said.

Jeffrey Covington was stripped of his peace officer's license and custody of his children, who are back with their mother.

"I think it's going to stay with the children indefinitely," she said.

Jeffrey Covington will serve 5 years probated. His criminal defense attorney didn't return our phone calls for comment. Trial for that second officer begins in three weeks.

Meanwhile, Laura Covington's attorney has filed civil rights lawsuit in federal court as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this report