I have been somewhat negligent in covering the trial of Scott Lando, which ended yesterday.
Mr. Lando was a former officer with the Austin Police Department; he was commended at one time for bravery, and for making the most arrests in his sector. However, things went south for some reason, and Officer Lando was fired in 2008.
Former Officer Lando has been accused of various charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and prostitution. However, in this particular case, he was charged only with four drug charges; Lando was accused of giving crack and money to hookers and their “boyfriends”.
Interestingly, three of the four drug charges were dismissed by the judge before they even reached the jury, due to insufficient evidence. After deliberating for two days, and telling the judge twice that they were hopelessly deadlocked, the jury finally convicted Lando on the one remaining charge; that he gave crack to the “boyfriend” of a hooker he met while on patrol.
The trial featured some rather sensational allegations; specifically, hookers claiming that Lando brought them to his house, had “unprotected sex” with them (note that it isn’t bad enough that Lando just had sex with hookers; it has to be spelled out that it was unprotected sex) and gave one of the hookers a pair of Harley Davidson motorcycle boots that belonged to his wife.
Speaking of Mrs. Lando, she’s stood by her man the whole time, claiming that the hookers in question broke into her house and stole her stuff.
Something stinks here, but I’m not sure what. When you go to trial on four charges, the judge throws out three of them before they even reach the jury, and the jury is deadlocked on the last one…