BY ADAM WEINTRAUB
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Cincinnati police sergeant recently admitted he planted marijuana on a drug suspect in 1984 but has remained on duty while an investigation continues, Police Chief Michael Snowden said Thursday.

Sgt. John Sess, assigned to police District 4, was working Thursday night and could not be reached for comment.

City Safety Director Kent A. Ryan, reached at home Thursday, said the sergeant would immediately be assigned to desk duty pending the outcome of the police investigation.

Sgt. Sess was being screened about three weeks ago for transfer to the Regional Enforcement Narcotics Unit (RENU). During the screening, and prior to taking a polygraph test, Sgt. Sess told investigators about the incident after he was asked whether he had ever done anything improper as a police officer, Chief Snowden said.

Officers from the police Internal Investigations Section are interviewing other officers who might have information about the incident and are trying to locate the suspect, who went to prison after pleading guilty to a drug count, he said.

Chief Snowden, reached away from his office, could not provide the suspect's name.

He said that another police officer saw the suspect with illegal drugs, and that drugs the suspect threw away during a foot chase were also recovered.

The evidence Sgt. Sess said he planted ''had no bearing on the conviction,'' Chief Snowden said.

''There were other cops who were involved in the arrest, but it appears they had no knowledge of what John Sess says he had done,'' the chief said.

Chief Snowden said Sgt. Sess told investigators that:

Thomas Streicher, now the commander of police District 1 in central Cincinnati, saw the suspect with illegal drugs.

Gary Seal, now a detective with the police Criminal Investigations Section, moved in to arrest him, but the suspect got away, discarding marijuana as he ran.

Sgt. Sess, then an officer, said he caught the suspect and put drugs in the suspect's pocket. Those drugs were found by other officers, but the suspect identified only the discarded drugs as his.

The police division has been rife with rumors about the case for at least a week, and the case was discussed in general terms Thursday on WCIN-AM radio.

Callers to The Enquirer after the program Thursday asked why a white officer who had admitted wrongdoing would remain on duty while black officers accused of misconduct have been suspended.

Chief Snowden said the fact that the incident took place 13 years ago, and that Sgt. Sess admitted it, played into the decision to keep him on the job. ''That's not to say it wasn't a serious offense ... (but) right now, all we've got is an admission,'' with no corroborating evidence, he said.

''We don't have a criminal case, because the statement was made at the direction of a supervisor. ... It's one thing to know something and another to prove it.''

Chief Snowden was referring to a rule that blocks the use of an officer's statements in criminal cases if the officer was ordered to make them. Because an officer can be disciplined if he refuses to answer, the officer is effectively being forced to give up his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

Sgt. Sess has run afoul of police procedures before. In 1988 he was suspended for five days, accused of using excessive force in the arrest of Gary Price by banging the prisoner's head into the pavement with his knee.

The officer testified at an appeal hearing that he was trying to restrain Mr. Price's head because he was afraid the man would spit or bite, possibly transmitting a disease.

The complaint in that case was filed by Lt. Clarence Williams III, now president of the Sentinel Police Association, an organization representing black officers.