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Police dispatcher pleads not guilty to drug charges
Also pleads innocent to accessing police databases

by Glenn Wohltmann

A former Pleasanton police dispatcher pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony drug possession charges and misdemeanor charges, including conducting unauthorized searches of police databases and making more than 700 annoying telephone calls.

Heidi Feathers -- who was also listed last year as the Police Department's shop steward for Local 955 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- was arrested in September following reports of employee misconduct.

According to records at Superior Court in Pleasanton, Feathers accessed two police databases and conducted unauthorized searches on April 8, April 15, May 16 and June 11.

"There was information to believe a dispatcher with the Pleasanton Police Department was conducting confidential law enforcement records searches," Pleasanton police Sgt. Kurt Schlehuber said in documents filed with the court.

Those searches included accessing the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the Criminal Offender Record Information system.

Feathers was dating someone involved in a Alameda County Sheriff's Office case, court records show.

A search of Feathers' home in September in connection with the investigation yielded four pills in bindles -- small packages used to hold drugs -- for which Feathers did not have a prescription. Those included one Oxycontin tablet and one morphine pill, leading to the drug charges.

Superior Court Judge Hugh Walker said Wednesday that Feathers made 728 annoying phone calls between March and September of last year, calling her bond "woefully inadequate."

Walker ordered Feathers not to have any further contact with the four victims.

"If there is any contact in any way, either by yourself or by someone on your behalf, you're going to find yourself in custody without bail," the judge said.

Feathers' trial is set for March 6.