Fired Officer Pleads Guilty To Cocaine Possession

A Seattle police officer, who said he would occasionally shake down gang members and take their cocaine for his own use, pleaded guilty yesterday in King County Superior Court to cocaine possession.

Choya Pennington, 33, admitted his guilt after a videotape, produced by undercover police, showed him snorting cocaine at the apartment of a North Seattle woman on Feb. 4.

Pennington, according to authorities, told the informant his source of drugs had dried up and asked her to arrange a sale.

After making his plea, Pennington, of Auburn, cordially shook hands with prosecutors and the woman detective in charge who arrested him.

Before his client decided to plead guilty, defense attorney John Henry Browne had planned to show that Pennington was motivated by "amorous inclinations," rather than drugs, and would claim entrapment.

Deputy Prosecutor Ellen O'Neill-Stephens said she will recommend to Judge Bobbe Bridge that Pennington serve 45 days in the King County Jail.

Pennington, a former Los Angeles officer, was fired in late February after less than a year with the Seattle department.

Prosecutors claimed in court documents that the tapes revealed Pennington "had been a drug abuser for quite some time, that he was familiar with how to prepare cocaine for snorting and smoking, and instead of being reluctant to use cocaine he was anxious to do so."

Pennington admitted the narcotics possession when faced with a

possible exceptional sentence. Browne said normally a small amount of drugs would be handled as a misdemeanor, but because Pennington was a police officer, the prosecutors would not allow any plea bargains.