By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A Polk County police detective from Felton, Ga., was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison Tuesday for interfering in a joint FBI-police probe into a chop shop in Polk County and tipping off friends about an informant in the case.
Mark Howell Sparks, 40, was convicted in July of obstruction of justice, tampering with a witness and possessing a vehicle with an altered vehicle identification number (VIN).
Authorities said Sparks was privy to confidential information and encouraged an informant in the investigation into the chop shop to conceal his friends’ involvement in the operation when talking to investigators. He also tipped off the friends that the informant was wearing a wire, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian said Sparks placed the informant in danger by alerting his friends of the informants role.
“Instead of enforcing the law, Sparks broke it, and now he is going to prison,” Quillian said in a statement.
