Original Article Ex-officer sentenced in drug case Michael Kiefer The Arizona Republic Dec. 23, 2004 12:00 AM A former state Department of Public Safety patrol officer who traded drugs for sex pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday and was sentenced to probation. Michael D. Thompson, 31, expressed his remorse for no longer being a law enforcement officer. "I just want to take full responsibility for what I did and for the hurt I caused my family," he told Judge Ronald S. Reinstein. "The public is a victim because you violated their trust as a police officer," Reinstein replied. Thompson, a Mesa resident, had been a DPS officer since 1999. According to Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Bill FitzGerald, DPS investigators first learned that Thompson might be exchanging drugs for sexual favors in July and set up a sting operation with a young woman who had had a relationship with Thompson. On Sept. 23, according to FitzGerald, Thompson met with the woman, threw a packet of cocaine on the floor and told her to "earn" it. Deputy County Attorney Elizabeth A. Gilbert said Thompson used drugs and his authority as a police officer as a method of control. "He was using her desire for drugs as a way to make himself feel better about himself," she said in court. Thompson was charged with sale or transportation of drugs; he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser felony count of solicitation of transfer of narcotic drugs. Reinstein accepted his plea and sentenced him to 18 months of supervised probation and 125 hours of community service.