Hendersonville Officer Fired After Steroid Accusations

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -- Another middle Tennessee police officer has been fired after being accused of purchasing steroids.

Video: I-Team: Hendersonville Officer Linked To Steroid Probe

Hendersonville Police Chief Terry Frizzell confirmed on Thursday that he fired Officer Charles Cakora.

Frizzell said the Drug Enforcement Agency came to his office on Thursday, and that's when he learned Cakora had bought steroids in November and December of last year.

"This officer was involved in the purchase of a substantial amount of steroids," Frizzell said.

Cakora is the latest officer in middle Tennessee to be either decommissioned or fired in connection with a federal steroids investigation.

When the steroid investigation began a few months ago, Frizzell said he had made the officers within his department sign a document saying they were not involved in taking steroids.

Attached to the document was a statement that unlawful drug use would not be tolerated.

"Did anyone come forward and say, 'OK, I've got this in my past?'" I-Team reporter Jeremy Finley asked Frizzell.

"No," he said.

Cakora was among the officers who signed the document.

The I-Team reported that sources inside the investigation said Cakora purchased steroids in November and December 2007 from Nashville trainer Scott Haines.

Cakora went to work for Hendersonville police in January.

"I think it was very obvious to him and to all of our employees my disappointment in him," Frizzell said.

A pattern is starting to emerge that links some of the people in the federal investigation to Haines.

Investigators said they believe that in addition to selling steroids to Cakora, Haines also sold them to Metro police officers, three of whom are suspended.

The I-Team also reported that the owner of a nutritional supplement store, Mark Johnson, is now a main suspect in the investigation. One of the suspended Metro officers was a former co-owner of the store and Haines was also a customer, Finley reported.

"We have an investigation (whose) focus originated in middle Tennessee and has broadened in scope," said DEA representative Harry Sommers.

Sommers told the I-Team that the investigation now involves several states. Sommers added that when his agents get credible information that a police officer has purchased steroids, they are not waiting for indictments and are choosing instead to immediately tell their supervisors.

"We feel that it's necessary that we do that, yes," Sommers said.

A similar scenario to Cakora’s happened in Murfreesboro.

A recent graduate of the police academy was set to start work with Murfreesboro police, but when investigators showed up with information linking him to steroids, the officer was immediately fired.

Eight police officers are linked to the investigation, in addition to Johnson and Haines.

An attorney for two of the suspended Metro police officers said his clients are innocent.

The I-Team tried to contact Cakora at his home in Ashland City and at his parents’ residence in east Tennessee, but is yet to hear from him.