A former Columbus police detective apologized to a federal judge yesterday, saying he only got mixed up with a suspected drug dealer because of a raging gambling habit.

A former Columbus police detective apologized to a federal judge yesterday, saying he only got mixed up with a suspected drug dealer because of a raging gambling habit.

Stevie Billups and his lawyer also said that Billups was duped into protecting a drug dealer for pay and unfairly ensnared in a federal sting by a confidential informant looking to cut a deal.

"What I have is an addiction," Billups told U.S. District Judge James L. Graham. "What I am is a pathological gambler. ... I can't stop gambling."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Squires said Billups should have known better.

"Public confidence in our police to do the right thing is undermined with each case of police corruption," Squires said. "It is a police officer's duty to uphold the law and protect the public."

Billups took part in a drug deal for his own profit, knowing full well that heroin is a devastating scourge that ruins lives, Squires said.

Graham agreed, saying that Billups had a "pattern and practice" of using his position as a police officer to aid a criminal in breaking the law and could have backed out of the drug deal but didn't.

"Billups' actions cast a pall over one of the finest law-enforcement agencies in the country," Graham said.

He then sentenced Billups, 48, formerly of Fenwood Drive on the Far East Side, to

57 months in prison and fined him $10,000.

Billups pleaded guilty in November to attempted distribution of heroin. He also had been charged with carrying a gun during a drug-trafficking crime and money laundering after he hooked up with the drug dealer last summer at the Hollywood Casino Columbus. Those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.

He had been a police officer for nearly 22 years, most recently in the robbery unit, before being fired in October.

According to a federal complaint, Billups was drowning in debt when he met the drug dealer during frequent trips to the casino. In less than a year, Billups had been to the casino more than 100 times, often during his work shift.

During one of those visits, customs and immigration agents investigating the drug suspect saw Billups passing casino chips to him. Another time, he was seen cashing in chips for the suspect.

FBI and Ohio Casino Control Commission investigators arrested the drug suspect in mid-June, and he allowed them to monitor calls with Billups and set up a sting operation.

The suspect offered Billups $2,000 to protect him when he picked up an illegal drug payment, according to the complaint. Billups was later offered $3,000 more to guard the suspect when he picked up a car that he thought was loaded with heroin.

Billups took his service revolver and police radio to the first pick-up and was in an unmarked police car for the second, the complaint said.

Agents arrested him the day after the second job.

Billups asked the judge for leniency, saying he had grown up in the former Windsor Terrace in a neighborhood plagued by crime. He overcame the odds to become a police officer, he said.

Graham praised Billups for getting an education and overcoming adversity.

But, he added, that's what makes his case "all the more tragic."



@EncarnitaPyle