pears.JPG

Mobile Police Cpl. Donald Pears is shown with the case file of Delphine Ash Buchanan at police headquarters Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, in Mobile, Ala. The murder case remains open. (Press-Register, MIke Kittrell) MPR METRO

MOBILE, Alabama -- By the time the tax man caught up to Cpl. Donald Pears, the Mobile police homicide detective was no stranger to controversy.

Pears, who resigned in May, had caused two car accidents with his squad car in three years, lost a department-issued digital recorder and a city-issued pager, and was once suspended after a search of his house and car turned up cocaine, marijuana, and guns used in crime scenes, his personnel records show.



The 45-year veteran of the force was sentenced in June to five years' probation and ordered to pay nearly $20,000 in fines after pleading guilty to income tax evasion and filing false returns. He is one of a few Mobile police officers to have left the force this past year under suspicious circumstances.



"It didn't surprise me," said Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran, a former Mobile police chief. "He always had money issues and financial problems and adherence-to-the-rule problems. He could have a nice way about him but he constantly stayed in trouble."



A Mobile police spokeswoman did not return multiple requests for comment for this story.

Pears declined to comment on Friday afternoon.

"You've done what you've done and I don't know what you got is straight or not anyway," he said.

Here's a list of some of the incidents that landed Pears in hot water during his career as a Mobile police officer.



Drug raid



He was suspended for 28 days in 1998 after Mobile County sheriff's deputies raided his Kibby Road house in November of that year. They charged his son and daughter with first-degree possession of cocaine and marijuana.



Among other discoveries, they found a Lorcin model L25, .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, implicated in four armed robberies and an unsolved homicide; a Stallard Arms, model JS-9, 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, found by a citizen; and a Taurus, model PT-92, 9 mm, semiautomatic pistol, which was evidence in a federally prosecuted robbery and carjacking, the Mobile Press- Register previously reported.



Pears' son and daughter, Donald Jr. and Yulon, each were arrested and charged with first-degree possession of cocaine and first-degree possession of marijuana. Two other men also were arrested and charged: Thomas Taylor, with possession of marijuana; and Anthony McCants, with possession of cocaine.



Some of the drugs were found in the house, and others were found in a car parked in the front yard, according to investigators. Investigators found Pears' uniform, badge and gun in the house at the time of the bust, according to the Sheriff's Department. He was not charged in the case.



Nevertheless, Pears demonstrated a "deliberate indifference" to his son's criminal conduct by allowing him to live in his house, personnel records show.



"...In doing so, Cpl. Pears has failed to keep his private life unsullied as an example to all and behave in a manner that does not bring discredit to himself and the Department," the discipline report states.



Cochran, the former Mobile police chief, told AL.com he removed Pears from the homicide division following the raid.



"Generally, police agencies have rules that you can't associate with known criminals," Cochran said, noting that Pears was promoted after he left the department.



Car crashes



Pears had gotten into a car accident on Dec. 8, 2009, injuring two civilians and causing $8,103 in damage to his squad car. While traveling east on Springhill Avenue to meet a confidential informant for a murder case, Pears tried to make a left hand turn and failed to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic from westbound Springhill avenue. He was ordered to undergo four hours of driver's training.



A little less than 10 months earlier, Pears was driving a squad car westbound on Government Street when he rear ended a 2002 Subaru Outback. The force of the crash caused the SUV to hit the car in front of it.



Pears told police he got distracted when he saw a car back out of a driveway into oncoming traffic in the 1600 block of Government Street. He didn't have enough time to brake by the time he returned his eyes to the road. He was issued a reprimand for the crash.



Records show that Pears had also crashed his squad car into a pole after getting distracted behind the wheel in July 2003. Few other details are available.



About five years earlier, Pears was given a warning after former county administrator Doug Modling saw Pears speed in a squad car, and tailgate car on Interstate 65 southbound between Government Boulevard exit and Interstate 10.



"I have absolutely no recall of such an incident taking place at the date given," Pears wrote in his defense. "I make it a practice to drive safely and courteous to other drivers at all times."

Recorder in the toilet



Most recently, Pears was given a verbal warning after he dropped a police issued digital recorder belonging to Cpl. Charles Bagsby down the toilet. Using the men's restroom in October 2012, Pears leaned forward to flush the toilet and a small recorder fell out of his pocket into the toilet.



"Due to the force of the water being flushed, the device could not be recovered before it reached the connected plumbing," a police write-up stated.



Records show Pears had also lost a pager in August 1998 when he checked into a hospital for surgery. He was issued a reprimand and had to pay $65 for a replacement pager.

This story was updated at 4:20 p.m. Dec. 19, 2014 to include a comment from Pears.