Informants, cell phone searches led to arrest of Visalia narcotics officers

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Visalia Police Officer Bryan Ferreira has spent three nights at the Kings County Jail, but on Monday afternoon, he was brought back to Tulare County for his arraignment.

A judge denied all requests to shoot video inside the courtroom.

Ferreira and another Visalia Police narcotics detective, Shane Logan, surrendered themselves to authorities on Friday, following a sixth-month investigation that ended with a long list of charges for the decorated officers, including filing false reports, conspiracy, and perjury-lying about drug buys that didn't happen in order to obtain search warrants.

In a statement of probable cause for a warrant, an investigator with the Tulare County District Attorney's Office writes that during the investigation, several witnesses who worked as Ferreira's confidential informants spoke to authorities about their involvement with various criminal drug cases.

She continues to say, "...search warrants were written for the suspect's cell phones and a forensic extraction was completed. The evidence located within the cell phone extraction coupled with the witnesses statements showed that both Ferreira and Logan had conspired to multiple counts of perjury by falsifying police reports and search warrants from May 2017 through May 2018."

The alleged corruption has already led to more than 40 drug case dismissals by the Tulare County DA's office.

"I think the public should be concerned anytime a case has to be dismissed because of the conduct of law enforcement," said Tulare County Assistant District Attorney David Alavezos. "That should just be a concern because it's not the way we run our court system."

The DA's office is preparing a report for the public defender's office and local attorneys who may want to see their cases reviewed.

They also expect to field more calls from the public in the weeks ahead.

"We will be telling them if they have an attorney, contact their attorney," Alavezos said. "If they don't have an attorney, we will also be taking a look at the cases individually."

Logan is out on bail, and on Monday, Ferreira's bail was lowered significantly to $100,000.

But there are conditions.

He'll have to give up his weapons, and not have any contact with Logan or his confidential informants.

Both officers will be back in court on December 12th.

If convicted of all crimes, Ferreira faces more than 24 years in prison, while Logan is looking at a term of eleven years.