WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 5]
Involvement of Politicians, Judges, Lawyers, & Police in the Drug Business
NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings but left the original document mainly untouched. All dates are in YYMMDD format. These files are only a portion of the entire WORMSCAN.&& file. I had to break it up due to length. There are hundreds of pages in these files.
This is a continuation of the file named WORMSCAN.&&.
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 1]
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 2]
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 3]
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.&& [PART 4]
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960330, New Castle, PA, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Rodney King
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Mar/30/city/KING30.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer] City & Region
Saturday, March 30, 1996
Rodney King is acquitted
A jury found him innocent of drunken driving after an officer admitted lying in court.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A jury yesterday found Rodney King innocent of drunken driving. The acquittal followed a trial in which a rookie police officer admitted lying about how he had prepared his notes.
King made a number-one sign with his hand after the jury cleared him of being drunk while driving a rented car that became stuck in a muddy yard about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Several members of King's family hugged him. Later, King thanked his attorney and "the people of Pennsylvania."
An amateur photographer videotaped King, who is black, being beaten by four white police officers after being pulled over for speeding in Los Angeles in 1991. The following year, the officers' acquittal on state charges prompted riots in Los Angeles. Two of the officers later were convicted on federal charges.
Lawrence County juror Tasha Anzalone, 26, said the jury was swayed by Union Township Police Officer Clint Garver's admission that he had lied. Garver, 20, testified Tuesday that he had typed notes about the May 21 arrest on a friend's computer. But he admitted Wednesday that a judge had typed the notes for him.
King's arrest was the first by the officer, then on the force just two months. He admitted that he never saw King driving and never asked what he had been drinking.
"The big question was: `Why did he lie about it for a year?'" Anzalone said, adding that she also was troubled by District Justice David Rishel's involvement in Garver's investigation of King. Garver, meanwhile, said he was glad the trial was over.
The all-white jury deliberated for 6-1/2 hours in Lawrence County Court. Just 3 percent of the county's residents are black. King, then 30, was charged after refusing to allow his blood to be tested for alcohol. He was in New Castle last spring for his father-in-law's funeral.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Carmen Lamancusa said the state had not proved King had been driving or had been intoxicated. He also said King's injuries from the 1991 beating may have made it impossible for him to pass field sobriety tests.
Lamancusa further suggested that there was an official conspiracy against King. He pointed out that it had been a judge who had helped Garver with his notes.
Outside court, Lamancusa said the trial marked the first time that he had been able to persuade a police officer to admit lying. "If it weren't for the high profile it is, this case would have been over in two days," Lamancusa said.
At issue was King's statement to Garver that "we" were driving the stuck sedan. King said he meant that he and his friends were riding around the countryside, but Garver said he took the statement to mean that King had been driving.
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960330, Louisville, KY, Courier-Journal. Louisville Police Chief
Subject: Louisville, KY - x-Chief Gets 5
From: Bob Witanek
Posted randy@ntr.net Sat Mar 30 12:54:04 1996
From: Randy Jarnagin
Subject: Former Police Chief gets 5 yrs.
Hello, Bob,
Thought you might wish to inform your readers about this news event.
Louisville, Kentucky's ex-police chief, Richard Frey, received a 5 years and 3 months federal prison sentence yesterday.
The local newspaper, Courier-Journal, reported the following:
"Appearing stoic and poised, Richard Frey, the ex-Marine who ran the Jefferson County Jail with military precision, was sentenced yesterday to five years and three months in federal prison for taking nearly $200,000 in bribes.
Standing in a courtroom where he'd appeared on many occasions in his official capacity, Frey, 50, told U.S. District Judge Edward Johnstone: "Your honor, I've been before this court for 15 years and at no time has there ever been an occasion where the outcome was not a fair and impartial one. I have no doubt that will be the case today."
After the hearing, Frey seemed upbeat and even joked about his chances of encountering J. Clifford Todd, 67, the former chairman of U.S. Corrections. Todd paid Frey $4,000 a month to get and keep a lucrative corrections contract- then cut a deal with federal authorities to implicate Frey and testified as the government's chief witness against him.
"I don't think they're going to make us cellmates," Frey said after he left the courtroom. "Somehow, the thought of Cliff Todd lifting weights on the yard does not come to mind."
In an interview, Frey, who'll be allowed to turn himself in May 15, said the ordeal of the federal investigation and his indictment was worse than going to prison. "What has gone on in the past 24 months has been far more serious," he said.
The sentence handed down by Johnstone closes the curtain on the corruption scandal that erupted two years ago when Frey was fired amid allegations that he took payments from Todd, whose former company has a $3.2 million contract to house county inmates.
Citing Todd's cooperation with the government, federal prosecutors recommended that he serve only 4 1/2 months in home incarceration. But Todd was shocked earlier this week when U.S. District Judge John Heyburn rejected his deal with prosecutors and sentenced him to 15 months in prison.
______________________________________________________
_ Randy Jarnagin, President _
_ Data Services Corporation _
_ Box 921325 _
_ Louisville, KY 40292 _
______________________________________________________
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960416, New York City, NY, NY Times. Cocaine dealing cop gets 8 years
April 16, 1996
Ex-Harlem Officer Draws 8 Years for Corruption
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
[N] EW YORK -- In the harshest sentence yet handed down in Harlem's 30th Precinct corruption scandal, a former police officer who admitted stealing drugs and then selling them was sentenced Monday to eight years and one month in federal prison.
The former officer, Christopher DiLorenzo, 32, wept as he hugged his wife before U.S. marshals led him out of the courtroom to begin his term immediately. "Keep the faith," DiLorenzo said to his weeping mother and three sisters before heading to prison.
Until Monday, the longest sentence handed down in the corruption case was five years, and three of the five officers previously sentenced in federal court were given sentences ranging from one to two years in prison.
But in sentencing DiLorenzo, Judge Allen G. Schwartz of U.S. District Court in Manhattan said the nine-year police veteran deserved the maximum under the federal sentencing guidelines, declaring that DiLorenzo and his fellow corrupt officers "weren't protectors, they were predators."
"This was more than a serious crime," Schwartz said, glaring down over his eyeglasses at the defendant. "It was a horrendous crime. A police shield is not a license to prey on others."
The judge said he hoped the tough sentence would send a message of deterrence to all law enforcement officials who might be tempted to violate the public's trust. "These crimes attack the foundations of the criminal justice system and the law of this country," he said.
DiLorenzo was arraigned two years ago Monday, and at the time it appeared unlikely that he would get the harshest sentence, given the range of accusations against some defendants.
Yet his sentence reflected his position as the first officer sentenced for conspiring to distribute narcotics, a crime that carries a mandatory prison sentence of five years.
"This sentence should clearly demonstrate to all law enforcement officers and all public officials that they will be severely punished if they cross the line and violate the oath that they took to protect the public and uphold the law," U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said Monday.
DiLorenzo grew up in Woodside and Astoria, in Queens. He did not begin to commit crimes until he was teamed with Officer Alberto Vargas on the midnight shift.
Schwartz described a long list of crimes that DiLorenzo confessed to having committed from January 1991 to December 1992. Over all, DiLorenzo took nearly $50,000 from cash payoffs, thefts and his proceeds from the sale of more than four pounds of cocaine.
At least five times, DiLorenzo took money and cocaine that he had found during his police work in northwest Harlem. He and his partner usually sold the cocaine, dividing the profits among themselves and a drug dealer who worked in a Broadway bodega.
Several drug dealers, operating near West 146th Street, also paid DiLorenzo $500 a week for at least a year. The drug dealers had bought "protection" from other corrupt officers who might try to steal their drugs or money. The payoffs also guaranteed that the dealers would not be arrested themselves.
DiLorenzo also admitted having committed perjury while testifying in criminal court proceedings in state court.
In December, DiLorenzo pleaded guilty to one federal count and was promised a reduced prison sentence. He had faced five to six and a half years in a Federal prison.
But DiLorenzo tried to withdraw his guilty plea last month. His lawyer, Cynthia W. Lobo, told the court that DiLorenzo had hoped to take his chances at trial and attack the credibility of DiLorenzo's former police partner, Vargas, who has admitted lying to investigators.
Vargas has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced later this year. Eleven other former officers from the 30th Precinct remain to be sentenced.
Schwartz not only denied DiLorenzo's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, but he also penalized him, ruling that he should not receive credit for accepting responsibility for his crimes.
Michael E. Horowitz, an assistant U.S. attorney, referring to DiLorenzo's motion, told the judge Monday, "The government believes it was meant to delay the sentencing." The judge agreed and called it frivolous.
Schwartz did not soften the sentence after listening to DiLorenzo's expression of remorse, including his love for his wife and two young daughters. "I've lost more than I will ever be able to explain," DiLorenzo said softly.
Last week, he said, he explained his predicament to his 6-year-old daughter. "Don't worry," he said he told her. "I'll be there for you."
"I dropped her off today at school and she told me not to worry," DiLorenzo told the judge. In the first four rows of the courtroom gallery, 20 family members and friends sobbed and gasped for breath.
Afterward, Ms. Lobo, his defense lawyer, said she was not surprised at the length of the sentence.
"Judges would be hard pressed to show any kind of leniency to a police officer convicted of corruption," she said. "There is a lot of pressure on federal judges in this circuit, with politicians calling for the heads of judges who don't please them."
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960425, Los Angeles, CA, LA Times. SCAN. Southeast Cities [of Los
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 08:05:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jim Rosenfield
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: LA Times re: Doomed Drug Strike Force
Message-ID: <2.2.16.19960425080415.7FA71C7A@CINENET.NET>
LA Times Metro Section today:
Internal Clashes Doomed Drug Strike Force
Unit seized millions worth of narcotics in five cities, until members began suspecting colleagues of taking evidence.
By any measure, the cops who hunted drug traffickers for SCAN -- the Southeast Cities Against Narcotics Task Force -- made a good team. With fewer than a dozen investigators, pooled from five local police departments in Southeast Los Angeles County, the special unit netted $100 million in cocaine and $14 million in cash in its best year.
That also turned out to be its last year.
When SCAN disbanded last spring, it was one of the premiere local narcotics "crews" in the nation: It landed blow after blow to the Los Angeles drug network. Its agents seized everything from currency to airplanes from their suspects. In the process, they collected windfalls for their cash-craving departments with the help of the forfeiture laws that allow law enforcement agencies to keep a share of what they seize.
But when SCAN cops began to doubt each other's honor and that of their chiefs, it all came to a screeching halt.
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960426, Norristown, PA, Phila Inq. Greaterford Prison guard Ronald
Posted dadoner@chesco.com Thu Apr 25 12:35:10 1996
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/25/city/CGARD25.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer] City & Region
Thursday, April 25, 1996
Guard at Graterford convicted in drug case
He claimed an official planted heroin on him during a search.
Another guard faces trial in May.
By John Murphy
INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
NORRISTOWN -- A Montgomery County jury yesterday rejected a Graterford Prison guard's claim that a prison official planted 43 bags of heroin on him during a routine pat-down search.
After close to five hours of deliberation, the jury found Ronald Shepherd, 46, of Philadelphia, guilty on contraband and drug-possession charges.
Shepherd could face five to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine on the contraband charge -- a second-degree felony. The drug-possession charge carries a sentence of six months to one year.
Authorities accused Shepherd of trying to sneak the drugs into Graterford by concealing them in his sock. The drugs were discovered during a pat-down search of Shepherd and three other officers returning from a lunch break on Feb. 27, 1995.
During testimony yesterday, Shepherd told the jury that Lt. Charles Judge, a state corrections officer who conducted the search, had framed him.
Judge performed the search alone and in a room with the door closed, Shepherd said. Prison rules require two corrections officers to be present during all searches.
Judge "picked up something off the floor and said `contraband,'" Shepherd testified, describing the search.
On Monday, Judge testified that he performed the search alone because the prison was short-staffed that day. He also told jurors that he left the door open.
In closing arguments, Daniel Glammer, Shepherd's attorney, called Judge a liar who was "covering up his own crime." He also pointed out that Judge gave contradictory reports of the drugs. In one account, Judge said the heroin bags were rolled up into a ball the size of a baseball. Later, he described the bags as about the size of a golf ball.
Assistant District Attorney Michael S. Munger said the inconsistencies in Judge's testimony were minor, arguing that Judge had no motivation to plant the drugs.
Shepherd is one of 13 guards accused of drug violations at Pennsylvania's largest maximum-security prison since 1989. In October, 650 state and federal authorities descended on Graterford in a thorough search for evidence of drugs and corruption.
The three-day raid netted hundreds of handmade weapons and some drugs. Officials believe many inmates flushed drugs down the toilets when word of the raid began.
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960501, Cincinnati, OH, KNN. Christopher Kerins (39) an Officer of The
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/May/01/sj/CHAS01.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]
New Jersey
Wednesday, May 1, 1996
Trenton officer is charged after holdup, chase in Ohio
By Lillian Micko
INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
A Trenton police officer attending a law-enforcement convention in Cincinnati robbed a bank yesterday and then led police on a high-speed chase, authorities said.
Christopher Kerins, 39, is to be arraigned this morning on charges of bank robbery, felonious assault and eluding police, said Cincinnati Police Detective Ron Miller. Kerins was being held last night in the Cincinnati Criminal Justice Center.
According to Miller, Kerins entered the Kenwood Savings Bank in street clothes about 2 p.m. He pulled out a gun and received an undetermined amount of cash from the teller, Miller said. Kerins then went to the parking lot, where one of the tellers copied down the number of his New Jersey license plate, Miller said. Kerins' car was quickly spotted and a chase ensued, first through suburban streets and then on Interstate 71, the detective said.
It was not determined how many miles the 20-minute chase covered, Miller said.
At one point, Kerins went through the suburban town of Maderia, where a police officer shot out his right front tire. Kerins continued to drive, left the interstate and continued on local highways and suburban streets.
About a mile from the outskirts of Cincinnati, Kerins got out of his car with his gun drawn and pointed it at an approaching city police car, Miller said. The officer rolled his car into Kerins', knocking over the suspect.
Kerins got up and ran a short distance before he was caught, the detective said.
Kerins, of Yardville, N.J., is a 13-year veteran of the Trenton police force. He was attending the conference with another Trenton officer who was not involved in the incident, Miller said.
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Date: Fri May 03, 1996 4:47 am CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Trenton, NJ: Cop as Robber
Posted: Thomas Dornheck
http://www1.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/nation/050296/nationb_10131.html#10
Undercover officer charged with drug dealing, bank robbery
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- He spent his days chasing drug dealers and lecturing youngsters about the dangers of narcotics. Now a decorated vice squad detective is charged with robbing 5 banks and trafficking in heroin. Christopher J. Kerins, an 11-year police veteran, is the long-sought "Camouflage Bandit," authorities said Wednesday. "It's bold, it's brazen, it's reprehensible and it's tragic," U.S. Attorney Faith S. Hochberg.
Kerins, 39, was charged in 4 armed bank robberies in the Trenton area since November, and one in Ohio. He confessed to the New Jersey robberies, which netted about $28,000, according to a criminal complaint. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison for each robbery. He was arrested Tuesday in Cincinnati, where police said he robbed a suburban bank and led officers on a 6-mile chase before being captured. He was in Ohio to attend a conference on fighting drugs and gangs. [sic! After the crime comes the crime fighting --how noble. 'Your tax dollars at work!' --Th.]
Police said they found $7,500 worth of heroin in Kerins' hotel room. "I won't believe it until he tells me he did it, and then I still won't believe it," Kerins' 13-year-old son, Brian, said outside the family home. The married father of two teen-age boys, Kerins has been a vice detective since 1989 and helped train his department's drug-sniffing dogs. But he was leading a double-life, "dressing up in camouflage gear and robbing banks in his own hometown," Hochberg said.
Police in New Jersey and in Bucks County, Pa., are investigating whether Kerins was involved in other bank robberies, said Trenton Police Chief Ernest A. Williams. Williams said there's a good chance that Kerins was on duty when some of the robberies took place and that he apparently used his service weapon, a 9 mm Glock handgun, in the Ohio robbery.
Kerins showed no sign of drug abuse and had an "outstanding" record, Williams added. [It served him well, it seems. --Th.]
FBI agents who searched Kerins' suburban Hamilton Township, NJ, home seized two camouflage-type jackets, other military-style camouflage garb and white latex gloves believed to have been used in the bank robberies. None of the cash from the New Jersey robberies was recovered. The money stolen from the Ohio bank was recovered. Kerins, who was being held in Hamilton County, Ohio, without bail, did not enter a plea Wednesday to charges that included aggravated trafficking and robbery. His next hearing is May 10.
"He is devastated," said lawyer Elizabeth Agar, who represented Kerins. "He's been trying for a long time to hold together his family and his job and try to avoid this kind of crash." [We're so sorry, Ma-am. --Th.]
[Associated Press (AP) May 2, 1996]
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Date: Sat May 04, 1996 10:32 pm CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Trenton Cop as Robber: Probe Widens
Posted: Ronnie Dadone
Subject: Philadelphia Inquirer: City & Region
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/May/03/city/CCOP03.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer] City & Region
Friday, May 3, 1996
Probe of Trenton officer widens; heroin use cited
The jailed officer became addicted to the drug after killing a suspect in 1989, his lawyer said.
By John Way Jennings and Lillian Micko
FOR THE INQUIRER
While Christopher Kerins, the suspended Trenton detective, is held in Cincinnati on drug and bank robbery charges, investigators say they will look beyond New Jersey for other possible bank robberies by the "Camouflage Bandit."
Agent Ann Todd, an FBI spokeswoman in Trenton, said yesterday that agents were concentrating on bank robberies in New Jersey, where Kerins this week confessed to and was charged in connection with four bank robberies. He was named as a suspect in three others in New Jersey.
Todd said agents would later expand their investigation to include any travel by the 11-year-veteran officer, both professional and personal.
She said investigators will then check with FBI bank robbery coordinators in the areas Kerins may have visited to determine if there were any robberies in which the robber wore camouflage clothing. Police sources said authorities were checking possible similar robberies in Bucks County, Pittsburgh, and Norfolk, Va.
Meanwhile, Kerins' attorney, Elizabeth E. Agar, said yesterday that Kerins had become addicted to heroin after fatally shooting a suspect in the late 1980s. "I think this is about as complete a devastation of a life as you're likely to find," she said in an interview with the Associated Press. "This is someone who for many years was a model police officer, model husband and father, highly respected, a pillar of the community."
She said he is now going through withdrawal.
Kerins, 39, of Yardville, was arrested Tuesday in Cincinnati, where he was attending a law enforcement conference, after leading police on a six-mile chase following a bank robbery in a Cincinnati suburb. Investigators subsequently found 346 doses of heroin in his hotel room.
Meanwhile, investigators in Trenton quickly linked him to a string of puzzling bank robberies in the area. He was charged with taking a total of $28,241 in four robberies in Mercer County.
Three others in which he is a suspect occurred in suburban Hamilton Township, where Kerins lived.
Trenton Deputy Police Chief Joseph Constance said yesterday that investigators searching Kerins' home late Tuesday seized about $100 that might be marked bills linked to the stickups. Authorities also seized two camouflage-type jackets, other military-style camouflage garb and white latex gloves believed used in the bank robberies. Constance said investigators have determined that Kerins showed up at two New Jersey banks after they were robbed, claiming to have heard reports on a police scanner and offering to help investigate. "We can place him on the scene right after two robberies," he said.
Constance added that the detective was able to avoid Trenton banks being staked out as the search for the "Camouflage Bandit" escalated because he knew his colleagues' whereabouts. He said Kerins may have used that strategy to make a safe getaway from his last alleged New Jersey holdup, on April 24 at Roma Savings Bank. "I don't believe that his family was aware of any of his activities," said Agar, his attorney, adding that Kerins was "particularly careful" to hide his addiction from his wife and two teenage sons.
"The [ drug ] problem dates back to the shooting that he was involved in in Trenton, where a suspect was killed while attacking him with a knife" in 1989, she said. "He had a lot of psychological problems in dealing with that and apparently did not receive any counseling."
Agar said Kerins began taking painkillers prescribed by a doctor and eventually turned to heroin.
"He never injected it. He was inhaling it. You can sniff it just like cocaine," to avoid having telltale needle marks, the lawyer said.
She said Kerins has not yet decided whether to plead guilty to the bank robbery and drug-trafficking charges.
[Image]
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
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Date: Fri May 10, 1996 3:12 am CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Trenton Cop/Robber Tries Suicide
Posted: Ronnie Dadone
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/May/08/city/CCOP08.htm
The Philadelphia Inquirer - Wednesday, May 8, 1996
Officer held in heists tries to kill himself In a suburban Cincinnati jail, he cut an artery in his throat with a razor, police said.
By John Way Jennings and Emilie Lounsberry
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
A suspended Trenton police detective being held in a suburban Cincinnati jail on bank robbery and drug charges attempted to take his life yesterday morning, authorities said.
Christopher Kerins, 39, used a razor to cut an artery in his neck, said Col. Daniel Wolfangel of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. Kerins was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition yesterday afternoon. Kerins, who also faces federal charges of robbing four banks in the Trenton area since November, has been dubbed the "Camouflage Bandit" because of the military-style clothing the suspect wore when he allegedly robbed the banks. Authorities, who say that Kerins is an admitted heroin addict, allege that he pointed a handgun at tellers when he robbed the banks.
His arrest in Cincinnati shocked people who knew Kerins as a respected family man and hard-working police officer. He was in a cell about 9 a.m. yesterday preparing for a visit by a brother and a brother-in-law when he used the blade from a disposable plastic razor to cut his neck. Wolfangel said Kerins, who is being held on $375,000 bail, was housed in a protective-custody section of the jail because he was a police officer. He said the 11-year-veteran of the Trenton Police Department had been under a suicide watch since his arrest last Tuesday, but that watch ended Monday on the advice of a psychologist at the jail. The incident "continues under investigation by Sheriff's Office personnel," Wolfangel said. Elizabeth E. Agar, a Cincinnati attorney representing Kerins, said that she saw her client early Monday and he had seemed better physically, and that his heroin-withdrawal symptoms had subsided. However, she said he still was depressed. She said she would not have recommended that he be removed from the suicide watch. "Police officers are a high risk for suicide at the best of times. This is not the best of times," said Agar, adding that Kerins knew he was facing a long prison sentence if convicted. "Prison for police officers is not a bright prospect." Trenton Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Meyer said yesterday that "things have been very trying for the Kerins family the last week. Now this." Meyer said Trenton police investigators have found no drugs missing from the evidence room.
"Kerins apparently told authorities that he purchased the heroin in New York, and at this point we tend to believe him," Meyer said. Kerins was in Cincinnati on April 30 to attend a law-enforcement conference when authorities said he robbed a suburban bank. Driving an undercover Trenton Police Department car, Kerins was chased for about nine miles by police, who shot out a tire and captured him after he ran into a vacant building.
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960502, Dallas, TX, Dallas Morning News. $50,000 in cash disappears
Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 12:00:55 -0700
From: Annette French
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: Police Corruption: One Day in Dallas
Message-ID: <199605031900.MAA26983@PATTY.LOOP.NET>
From: Jay.Manifold@TXIVGRGATE.sprint.com
Subject: One Day in Dallas
From _The Dallas Morning News_, Thursday, May 2, 1996:
1. "Dallas Police Chief Ben Click has called in the FBI to investigate the disappearance of $50,000 in cash from a police narcotics division safe. "The money, police officials say, was discovered missing Monday and is assumed for now to have been stolen by one or more of the seven narcotics unit supervisors who had access [to] the safe."
2. "Dallas Police Chief Ben Click has rehired an officer who was fired last year after investigators found that he improperly searched the apartments of suspected drug dealers in South Dallas and then lied to cover up his actions."
3. "The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the top federal drug agent in Dallas because of his request that a California judge reconsider a misdemeanor arson sentence against the agent's 21-year-old son."
| "Innocence and fairness are beside the point." |
| |
| --- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, |
| United States Supreme Court |
Jay Manifold, Chairman Libertarian Party of Texas
1-800-422-1776
PO Box 140577
Irving, TX 75014 http://www.io.com/~freedom/lptxhome.html
w [REDACTED]
****************************************************************************
Annette French
Media Awareness Project (MAP)
[REDACTED]
God grant me the ingenuity to escape the things I cannot change, the money to change the things I can, and lawyers to know the difference.
*****************************************************************************
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960505, Oklahoma, Sunday Oklahoman, p1. Drug Agent Travis Palmer admits
DAs Drop Drug Task Force
The Sunday Oklahoman, May 5, 1996 p.1
By Mark A. Hutchison and Anthony Thornton, Staff Writers
Oklahoma District Attorneys are finding that paying thugs for information and giving addicts drug money isn't easy when you have to follow the rules.
And then there's all that paperwork.
The grants are "an administrative nightmare," said one district attorney whose office is under investigation for possible embezzlement of drug task force funds.
Another prosecutor whose office is under scrutiny recently decided to eliminate his drug task force, calling it "the biggest headache we've ever had."
At least five state prosecutors have relinquished their lucrative federal grants and disbanded successful multi-county task forces.
Those opting to keep the task forces complain about the guidelines but say the red tape is worth the money.
"I'll bet we've put charges on 100 people for drugs in the last 12 months because of the task force," said District Attorney Walter Hamilton, whose district covers McCurtain, Choctaw and Pushmataha countries. (mp note: this is SE Oklahoma which was settled by outlaws and during Prohibition was a major producer of moonshine.)
"Some urban areas may have the resources to address their drug problems with local and state law enforcement. We don't in fact, money's been so tight down here that we were even buying drugs with food stamps."
Hamilton explains that the nearest state drug officers are in McAlester, 2 1/2 hours away. Therefore, "Who's going to work the cases in Clayton and Sawyer, Oklahoma? We are, because we get complaints, and we realize that the people involved in this business are everywhere."
On the other side of the state, District Attorney John Wampler said his task force has several internal controls such as one coordinator being responsible for handling transactions and informants signing their names for receipt of money to buy drugs.
Officers also try to maintain visual contact with informants during the buy, but sometimes that's impossible.
"You're already dealing with guys of questionable character. If they want to rip you off, they probably can," said Wampler, whose district covers Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman and Washita counties.
State Auditor and Inspector Clifon Scott is leery of the current accounting procedures and called on the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council last week to develop tougher internal controls.
Otherwise, Scott said, "It's just a breeding ground for those informants to sit in a bar and buy beer for everybody all night."
*Offices Under Scrutiny*
Especially difficult to trace is when task force agents, not the informants, are suspected of embezzling funds. That's what happened with District Attorney Miles Zimmerman, whose jurisdiction covers Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties.
Zimmerman said a former task force agent, Travis Palmer, admitted to obtaining cash with forged receipts. The agent was fired, and a state investigation is continuing. Other members of Zimmerman's task force, past and present, also are being investigated for possible embezzlement and evidence tampering.
Those confidential informant funds have become an item of debate between prosecutors and Scott. Because of the sensitive nature of informants, prosecutors don't want to reveal their names "because it can get somebody killed," said Bruce Walker, executive director of the DA Council.
In one case, an investigator threw away a 1995 report book before auditors could review it. His defense: He didn't want the book to fall into the wrong hands.
Now, auditors and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation are trying to reconstruct the records to account for $30,000 in grant money.
If the investigator didn't know better, Scott said, he should have been advised by the district attorney, Mike Sullivan, or his first assistant, Gary Buckles, who administered the task force.
"Those boys are lawyers, and they advise the county on retention of records," Scott said.
"It goes back to that weird (notion), 'We're the DAs; you have to trust us,'" Scott said.
Sullivan, district attorney for LeFlore and Latimer counties, admits that discarding the receipt book "should have never been done." But, he said, "there's no DA in the state that can watch an employee 24 hours a day."
Walker, with the District Attorneys Council, said state guidelines require task forces to keep receipts of money paid to informants for three years.
"He (Sullivan) did not do what he should have done. It was a dumb mistake by somebody that works there," Walker said.
The investigations of Sullivan's and Zimmerman's offices come amid a revelation that another district attorney, Paul Anderson in Payne and Logan counties, embezzled money. Officials say $90,000 is missing so far. Anderson has admitted responsibility.
If not for the Anderson investigation, Sullivan said, auditors probably wouldn't have looked twice at his office.
"We do more (record keeping) than anybody else. We probably put too much information in there," he said, referring to files on paid informants.
Scott said he hopes the overall problem will be solved by the District Attorneys Council's promise for better internal controls. He noted that similar controls were placed on the prosecutors' bogus check funds July 1, 1993.
"Paul Anderson quit (embezzling) on July 1, 1993, from the bogus check stuff because of the internal controls" Scott said.
The auditor attended a special meeting of district attorneys last week to convey this message: "If you don't believe in record-keeping, leave the money with Bruce (Walker); somebody else might want it."
"I think Bruce Walker has heard the wake-up call," Scott said.
*Worth the Trouble*
Task forces in Oklahoma have been awarded federal grants since 1986. They were set up with the district attorney in charge because, with the broad geographic area they cover, they're able to get cross--deputization agreements and share information, Walker said.
Of the federal grant money available each year, task forces receive about 20 percent, Walker said. The remaining funds are given to nonprofit and other community law enforcement programs.
In 1995, the state task forces split $1,390,269, Walker said. They're expected to get about the same amount this year. Grants will be awarded in June based upon recommendations by a 13-member board made up of state agency and law enforcement heads.
Of the state's 27 districts, Walker said all but five have applied for new task force grants. those who didn't apply are Cathy Stocker in Enid, Sullivan in Poteau, Lantz McClain in Sapulpa, Robert Macy in Oklahoma City and Rod Hudson in Stillwater. Hudson replaced Anderson, who already had discontinued his district's task force.
Some prosecutors consider their task forces the last bastion of hope in the war on drugs.
Rural law enforcement agencies don't have the manpower to wage much of a fight, Zimmerman said.
"So while it may not be politically wise to have that albatross around your neck, if the district attorney doesn't handle it, how are these small police departments and sheriff's offices supposed to handle it?" he said.
Sullivan said his office has never lost a drug case, "and 60 percent of the crime in my district is drug related."
He recently disbanded the drug task force, however, because "it's the biggest headache we've ever had."
"We just don't have the staff," he said. "We're going to get out of the investigative business and try to get back into the prosecuting business."
Stocker in Enid cited similar reasons for ending the task force in her five counties: Garfield, Blaine, Kingfisher, Grant and Canadian.
"It was taking up tremendous amounts of my staff time, and (so was) all the paperwork that we were required to maintain," she said.
Stocker, district attorney since 1982, said she encouraged local law enforcement agencies to take over the federal grants.
"But there were no takers," she said.
Sullivan said he tried unsuccessfully since early 1994 to use law officers instead of informants for drug buys.
"Down here you're dealing with scumbags in the drug business if you don't have certified police officers working for you." he said.
Walker says the District Attorneys Council has debated whether to keep a centralized database of informants at his office, "but we really don't want to."
end
------------------------------
Date: Mon Jun 03, 1996 7:40 pm CST
From: snetnews
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
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TO: snetnews
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snetnews@alterzone.com
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: (Fwd) Tempers Flare in Arkansas
-> SearchNet's snetnews Mailing List
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 20:57:53 -0400 (EDT)
To: cs@oak.oakland.edu
From: djsussma@oakland.edu (David J Sussman)
Subject: Tempers Flare in Arkansas
(Basic local story now makes wire service -- and what a curious one at that.)/wh
Courtesy AP -- 6/1/96
Lawyer Beats Up Reporter
BENTON, Ark. -- A county prosecutor was jailed Friday after authorities said he barged into the sheriff's office, admitted beating up a newspaper reporter, then threatened the sheriff and had to be restrained.
Dan Harmon, the prosecutor for Saline, Grant and Hot Spring counties, was placed in a holding cell and later taken to a hospital for a mental and physical evaluation, the Saline County sheriff's office reported. He was not immediately charged.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said reporter Rodney Bowers was attacked when he approached Harmon to question him about property seized by a drug task force that Harmon had controlled before it was disbanded this year.
Harmon, 51, shoved and hit Bowers before bystanders restrained him, the newspaper said, then broke free and attacked him again when Bowers tried to use a phone to call police.
The 40-year-old reporter, whose head was slammed against the floor, was treated at a local clinic for bruises and cuts to his head, face, hip, chest and ribs.
"This is deplorable," said Executive Editor Griffin Smith Jr. He added the newspaper was consulting its attorneys about possible legal action.
Soon after the incident, authorities said Harmon arrived at the sheriff's office, yelling and swearing.
"I was in my office when I heard all the commotion," said sheriff's Capt. Gene Donham. "He yelled something like `I just beat the s--- out of Rodney Bowers, and I've come to do my duty."
When Harmon advanced toward him, Donham said, he unsnapped his gun holster and Harmon screamed, "Go ahead. Pull it. Shoot me."
Later, when Harmon saw Sheriff Judy Pridgen, he threatened her and had to be restrained, Donham said.
^
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960821, San Jose, CA, San Jose Mercury News. Profits from tons of
Date: Wed Aug 21, 1996 12:39 pm CST
From: bigred
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: bigred@duracef.shout.net
TO: Conspiracy Nation
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: CN-L@cornell.edu
BCC: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Report: CIA Profited from Crack Plague
Found at USA Today website http://www.usatoday.com today, Aug. 21, 1996
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 12:27:03 -0500
Subject: ncs10.htm
[Washington News]
08/20/96 - 08:57 PM ET - Click reload often for latest version
Report: CIA profited from crack plague
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Throughout the 1980s, a San Francisco Bay area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled the profits to some of the CIA-run Contras in Nicaragua, a newspaper reported.
Repeated attempts to prosecute the ring's kingpin were thwarted by the CIA, possibly to cover up ties between the traffickers and Contra leaders, the San Jose Mercury News reported in a series of articles after a yearlong investigation.
The newspaper's report, based on recently declassified federal reports, court testimony and interviews, also alleges that the drug network was partially responsible for the ongoing "crack" problem in Los Angeles.
The money pipeline was created after the CIA combined several armies to create 5,000-member anti-communist FDN Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (Nicaraguan Democratic Force) in mid-1981, the newspaper reported.
The same year, the drug ring sold almost a ton of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods, notorious Los Angeles gangs, for $54 million, former FDN leader and government informant Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes said.
"There is a saying that the ends justify the means," Blandon testified in 1994. "So we started raising money for the Contra revolution."
The Mercury News identified the primary buyer as Ricky Donnell Ross, or "Freeway Rick," a notorious South-Central Los Angeles dealer who bought powder cocaine, turned it into crack and sold it wholesale throughout the city and the nation.
Blandon spent 28 months in U.S. prison for dealing drugs, the Mercury News said. He was released from prison in 1994 to become a full-time informant for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, a job which has since paid him more than $166,000.
How much of the drug ring's profits went to the FDN before it disbanded in 1988 still is unclear. But in his testimony, Blandon said, "whatever we were running in L.A., the profit was going to the Contra revolution."
Blandon's boss, Juan Norwin Meneses Cantarero, was a major drug dealer and smuggler who ran the FDN operation out of his homes in Burlingame and Pacifica in Northern California, the paper reported.
Although records show that the U.S. government was aware of Meneses' dealings since 1974, the Mercury News reported that he has never been in a U.S. prison. Meneses currently is serving time in Nicaragua after being arrested in connection with a 750-kilo shipment of cocaine.
Federal prosecutors blame the CIA and other federal departments for Meneses' relatively sweet treatment in the U.S., the Mercury News said.
"The Justice Department flipped out to prevent us from getting access to people, records - anything that would help us find out about it," said Jack Blum, former chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee that investigated alleged cocaine trafficking to the Contras. "It was one of the most frustrating exercises that I can ever recall."
Agents from four other agencies, including the DEA, U.S. Customs, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, also have complained that the CIA hampered investigations, the Mercury News reported.
The reason might well be Meneses' own connections to the CIA, the Mercury News said. One piece of evidence - a picture taken in June 1984 - shows Meneses with Adolfo Calero, a longtime CIA operative and FDN political boss.
But efforts to trace the government's knowledge of the drug ring have similarly been thwarted, the newspaper reported.
Freedom of Information Act requests that reporters filed with the CIA and DEA have been denied on national security and privacy grounds. A FOIA request filed with the FBI has so far been ignored, the Mercury News reported.
While Blandon has never said he was selling cocaine for the CIA, his lawyer, Los Angeles defense attorney Bradley Brunon, said he has drawn his own conclusions from the CIA's clandestine behavior.
"Was (Blandon) involved with the CIA? Probably. Was he involved with drugs? Most definitely," Brunon said. "Were those two things involved with each other? They've never said that, obviously. They've never admitted that. But I don't know where these guys get these big aircraft."
By The Associated Press
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