Former Washington Player Gets 10 Years for Selling Drugs

A former Wilmington Banning High football star who played sparingly for the University of Washington was sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling drugs. He claims the charges were a payback for being a whistle-blower in the case that put the Huskies on three years’ probation.

Terrance Powe, 26, was convicted in June of three drug-distribution charges, and Tacoma, Wash., prosecutors described him as a major dealer in the Seattle area. This week, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Brian Tollefson gave Powe the maximum sentence allowed under state guidelines.

The judge said Powe, a defensive tackle for the Huskies from 1987 to 1990, deserved an exceptional sentence because evidence put him at the center of a sophisticated drug-distribution network that used illegally reprogrammed cellular phones for communication.

Powe, who successfully sued the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department in a brutality case in 1993, contended he was not a drug dealer. He said police have been harassing him since he talked to Pacific 10 Conference investigators about violations in Washington’s football program involving Los Angeles and Seattle boosters. However, Seattle police said they had targeted Powe before the football program was investigated.