Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

A former DeKalb County police officer from Lilburn pleaded guilty in federal district court in Atlanta Friday on charges that he helped others possess and hide a stolen vehicle, unlawfully accessed governmental information, and lied to federal agents.

The most serious of the charges against Donald Bristol, 41, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 18.

According to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, starting in April of 2010 Bristol used his position as a DeKalb police officer to help two separately charged defendants hide the fact that the car they were using was stolen. He was also accused of misusing his access to law-enforcement data to provide sensitive information to them and then lying about it to federal agents

Bristol was indicted on the charges in May.

“This defendant was a criminal in a police officer’s uniform,” Yates said in a released statement. “The evidence showed that during his tenure as a police officer, he violated the very laws that he had sworn to enforce – and then lied about it to federal agents.”