Frankfort Man with a Cook County Sheriff's Badge Snared in FBI Drug Sting

One Cook County sheriff’s deputy appeared before a federal judge Tuesday and another was taken to the morgue after both were arrested Monday in Bedford Park in an FBI sting.

Robert Vaughn, of Frankfort, and Stanley Kogut, partners on an anti-drug team, thought they had ripped off a drug dealer and taken 75 pounds of marijuana, according to authorities. But the dealer was an undercover federal agent.

After being taken into custody, Kogut took his own life by hanging himself in a cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. An autopsy will be conducted Wednesday. His body was found before 5 a.m., according to the Cook County sheriff’s department.

Vaughn, 44, appeared before a judge Tuesday, charged with conspiring to commit robbery of marijuana, contraband cigarettes and money. At the end of the brief hearing, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin told him: “Hang in there, Mr. Vaughn. OK?”

Vaughn lowered his head into his hands, reports, the Chicago Tribune, and rubbed his temples. He will spend another night in the jailhouse where his partner hanged himself, although he could be released Wednesday.