WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.& [PART 3]
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. Some 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. Notice the change in format. There are much more details added to this file.
This is a continuation of the file named WORMSCAN.&.
WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.& [PART 1]
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Date: Thu Apr 04, 1996 10:38 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: Philly Corruption Chron
From: Bob Witanek
Posted dadoner@chesco.com Thu Apr 4 09:05:11 1996
http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Apr/04/city/CRON04.htm
[The Philadelphia Inquirer] City & Region
Thursday, April 4, 1996
Some major events of corruption probe
By Richard Jones and Mark Fazlollah
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Yesterday's indictment of four Philadelphia police officers was the latest blow to a department already reeling from 13 months of scandal.
Here is a chronology of key events in the corruption probe:
Feb. 28, 1995 -- A federal grand jury indicts five former officers in the 39th District in North Philadelphia -- John Baird, 40; Thomas DeGovanni, 44; Steven Brown, 48; James Ryan, 39; and Thomas Ryan, 38. They are charged with planting drugs on suspects, stealing more than $100,000 in cash and property, and falsifying police reports. They and a sixth former officer, Louis J. Maier 3d, later plead guilty.
March 15, 1995 -- Joe Morris, 53, in prison for a 1988 drug conviction, is freed at the request of the District Attorney's Office. His is the first of more than 100 convictions overturned by the courts because of misconduct by the six former officers.
April 7, 1995 -- Two former 19th District officers -- Derrick Mayes, 31, and Kevin Daniels, 33 -- are convicted of stealing cash, planting drugs and making false arrests of young men in West Philadelphia. Each is sentenced to five to 10 years.
June 8, 1995 -- A former 35th District officer, Sgt. Gene Lomazoff, 39, is convicted of stopping motorists for minor infractions, then shaking them down for cash. He is sentenced to seven to 22 years.
July 26, 1995 -- Two former 39th District officers -- Brown, named in the February indictment, and Robert Miller, 47 -- are charged with running a lucrative fencing operation out of a North Philadelphia variety store.
Aug. 14, 1995 -- In the first of a series of mass transfers, Police Commissioner Richard Neal guts the 39th District's command, shifting the captain and 11 other supervisors to new assignments. In the 35th District, 11 supervisors are moved to new posts.
Aug. 15, 1995 -- City Councilman Michael Nutter criticizes Mayor Rendell's response to the widening scandal and calls for an independent commission with broad powers to investigate police misconduct. An existing commission is purely advisory.
Aug. 30, 1995 -- Federal investigators subpoena arrest logs in the 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th and 26th Districts and the Highway Patrol. The logs cover up to 100,000 arrests over 10 years.
Aug. 31, 1995 -- Neal announces a 10-step plan to fight police corruption, including beefing up the department's Internal Affairs Division, expanding ethics training, and instituting random drug testing. Three men who claim they were falsely arrested by corrupt officers file the first federal class-action suit stemming from the scandal.
Sept. 19, 1995 -- Before a packed City Council chamber, the Police Advisory Commission opens public hearings into the case of Moises DeJesus, a North Philadelphia man who died in 1994, three days after struggling with arresting officers. “He was hit, then handcuffed, then hit again, and again, and again,” said one witness. “He was thrown in [ the police van ] like a dog. That's when I said, ‘He's dead. He's dead.’” At the close of the hearing, about 200 off-duty officers chant: “Kangaroo, kangaroo!”
Sept. 26, 1995 -- Breaking with a traditional code of silence, the president of the group representing the city's black officers calls on all police to turn in corrupt colleagues and report misconduct, past or present. “The credibility of this police department is at stake,” says David E. Fisher, president of the Guardian Civic League. “These rogue cops are . . . tarnishing the badge.”
Nov. 16, 1995 -- The Inquirer reports that the Rendell administration paid $20 million over the preceding 28 months to settle more than 225 lawsuits alleging police misconduct. A spokesman for the mayor calls the upsurge “a statistical anomaly.”
Dec. 21, 1995 -- In its report on the death of Moises DeJesus, the Police Advisory Commission calls for the suspension of six officers. The report says that one officer struck DeJesus with a flashlight or nightstick and that five others “were not truthful in reporting what they observed.”
April 3 -- Four more officers -- Julio C. Aponte and Edward A. Greene of the 25th District and Lester F. Johnson and John P. O'Hanlon of the Highway Patrol -- surrender for booking on federal corruption charges.
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950700, Mena, AR, Penthouse.
Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 5 Num. 07
======================================
("Quid coniuratio est?")
THE CRIMES OF MENA
Investigative report by Sally Denton and Roger Morris
[*Penthouse*, July 1995]
Yes, this is the article, originally scheduled to run earlier this year in the *Washington Post*, that was yanked at the last possible moment. "At the very last minute... the *Post* killed the piece -- and refused to give a satisfactory answer for its action."
The authors, Denton and Morris, obtained what they refer to as "the Seal archives" after more than a year of digging into the story. Named for reputed drug smuggler *extraordinaire* Adler Berriman Seal, the archives seem to have been primarily gathered in via the efforts of Denton (author, by the way, of a good book on drugs and political corruption in Kentucky, *The Bluegrass Conspiracy*), who "scoured her considerable law-enforcement and underworld sources throughout the nation."
"By late summer 1994, what we called the Seal archive was mostly gathered -- more than 2,000 documents, from the smallest receipt to whole volumes of investigation..."
For those of you tuning in late, here is what the Mena story is all about, based on the testimony of scores of witnesses, investigators, experts, insiders, and researchers. Mena is a small town in Western Arkansas. During the 1980s, huge C-130 cargo planes, laden with weapons, would take off from there and fly down to Central America. The weapons would be unloaded and given to the *Contras*. (Some say that the weapons were being distributed to *both* *sides*.) The cargo planes did not fly back empty; weapons sales were financed, at least partly, by cocaine and marijuana; the cargo planes flew back to Arkansas filled with illegal drugs. The sales of these illegal drugs caused many Arkansas banks to be, as Sherman Skolnick puts it, "awash with cash."
The genesis of the Mena affair was the attempt (illegal) by some/all of the Reagan/Bush White House to circumvent the Boland amendment which had cut off Congressional funding for the *Contras* in Nicaragua. They are supposed to have paid off then-Governor Clinton and some/all of the Arkansas government in return that they look the other way and pretend not to notice anything unusual going on at places like Mena, Arkansas.
So, if the many witnesses are to be believed (and I think they are telling the truth), Arkansas was a beehive of drug/gun smuggling and money laundering activity during the 1980s. And the real kicker is that some/most highly-placed persons within the U.S. government were involved in all this! So that we had (and, some say, still have) a "war on drugs" in this country in which the forces of "law and order" were not only combating drug smuggling but were also, themselves, smuggling in the drugs!!
So now it is like, as if we didn't have enough proof of this already, here comes Denton and Morris with even *more* proof. We don't need more proof! The proof is already there! It is like, as if "Well maybe the 'massa' don't see it our way because we ain't done put it down double-spaced and with 1-inch margins." The "massa" don't see it 'cuz the "massa" don't *want* to see it! It's not that the "massa" just don't have enough proof! The "massa" ain't never gonna have enough proof because this story, if it *were* to come out in the "official" media would make the "massa" look bad! So the "massa" ain't gonna see it and it's not that he just needs more proof or that the report must be double-spaced or any of that crap.
But, anyway, here is more proof, good proof, in the July 1995 *Penthouse*. What good is it going to do? Will Tom Brokaw suddenly sit up and take notice? ("Gosh, all I needed was more proof! I'll get right on it!") Is this factual account of grand commissars and high potentates of the U.S. government dealing drugs -- and even banking the profits -- finally going to push the O.J. Simpson trial off the tube? Don't bet on it.
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950707, Yuma, AZ, AP. Sheriff's Deputy Jack Hudson was charged
APn 07/07 2249 Drug Agency Slayings
Copyright, 1995. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By BETH SILVER
Associated Press Writer
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- Sheriff's Deputy Jack Hudson was popular with his colleagues, a rookie of the year, a member of an elite drug task force -- all in all, the last man his boss expected to find on the other side of the law.
The 37-year-old former Marine is accused of shooting to death two fellow lawmen who caught him after hours in the task force office as he tried to steal confiscated guns and drugs.
Hudson was charged Friday with murdering Yuma police Lt. Dan Elkins and Sgt. Mike Crowe of the state Department of Public Safety.
All three were members of the Southwest Border Alliance, a group of officers from local, state and federal agencies fighting the drug trade around Yuma, on the Arizona border with California and Mexico.
Hudson, who has a beard and long, scraggly hair he grew for his job as an undercover officer, had a flawless record, said Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden.
"I wish I had 184 more files that looked like this," a teary-eyed Ogden said Thursday. "If anything, he was the exemplary one out there, the one everyone hung on, the one with the common sense."
Hudson came to the sheriff's office in 1992 after he was honorably discharged as a Marine staff sergeant. He served three years as an air traffic controller at the Corps' Air Station in Yuma.
He was charged with shooting his colleagues late Tuesday with a Mac-10 semiautomatic pistol after they surprised him trying to steal from the task-force evidence room.
Crowe, 41, was shot three times in the back and pleaded, "Please don't shoot me again," but the gunman jammed another magazine into his weapon and shot him in the head, The Arizona Republic reported Friday, citing an unidentified source.
Elkins, 42, escaped to make a 911 call before being gunned down. Investigators wouldn't say how many times he was hit.
A third man, evidence technician Jim Ehrhart, escaped being shot, allegedly because Hudson's pistol jammed.
Amphetamines, methamphetamines, marijuana and 18 firearms logged as task force evidence were seized in a search of Hudson's home.
"It is apparent that Hudson was stealing evidence items from the property room and offices at SBA to use as his own property," investigators said in court papers.
Hudson was jailed on $15.5 million bail.
Police Chief Robby Robinson, in charge of the investigation, said earlier reports that Elkins and Crowe were responding to a burglar alarm were wrong.
"Exactly what they were doing out there, we're still trying to figure out," he said.
Hudson's attorney, Mike Telep Jr., asked Friday to stop the release of any more documents on the case, including Hudson's personnel records and records of searches. Justice of the Peace Richard Donato said no further information would be released until a hearing next Friday.
Telep said he may ask to have the case moved.
"This is a small community," he said. "This is a tight-knit law enforcement community."
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the houses of its children."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953
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950720, San Antonio, TX, UPI. Two high-ranking officials of the
UPsw 07/20 1840 Law officers face drug charges
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, July 20 (UPI) -- Two high-ranking officials of the Maverick County Sheriff's Department were arrested by federal agents Thursday on drug distribution charges, federal authorities said.
Don Clark, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office, said Maverick County Chief Deputy Rudy P. Rodriques and Jail Administrator Miguel A. Omana were taken into custody without incident in Eagle Pass.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio said a federal grand jury indicted the pair Wednesday on a variety of charges, including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and aiding and abetting in the possession of drugs.
The indictment also charges Rodriques, 44, and Omana, 43, with conspiracy to commit theft from a program receiving federal funding, theft of government property and interference with commerce by threats.
Federal prosecutors said the charges in the indictment stem from activities that occurred in 1991 and 1992 when the two men were members of the 293rd Judicial District Drug Task Force at Eagle Pass and Crystal City.
Clark said the indictment alleges that Rodriques, Omana and another member of the task force, Domingo Moncada Jr., conspired to distribute heroin and cocaine that had previously been seized in drug raids. He said the three men used the drugs to establish their credentials as drug dealers and provided security for future drug shipments.
The indictment returned Wednesday superseded a previous indictment issued in March that charged Moncada and two other men -- Alvaro Tobias- Barrios and Hector Manuel Martinez -- on similar drug and conspiracy charges.
Moncada, 32, was arrested by federal authorities March 30 and remains in custody with along Martinez. Tobias-Barrios was released on bond.
If convicted of all counts, Moncada could be sentenced to a maximum 75 years in prison and fined $3 million. Rodriques faces a 25-year sentence and a $2.5 million fine, while Omana could be imprisoned for 45 years and fined $1.5 million, federal officials said.
(Written by Mark Langford in Austin)
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950805, Sydney, Australia, Reuter. A serving drug squad police
RTw 08/05 0439 POLICEMAN ARRESTED IN HUGE AUSTRALIA CANNABIS HAUL
SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuter) - A serving drug squad police officer was among 18 people arrested on Friday in what a police spokesman said could prove to be Australia's largest-ever drug haul.
Several tonnes of cannabis resin originating in the Middle East, as well as illegal firearms, were seized from several boats in the tourist town of Hervey Bay, 250 km (155 miles) north of Brisbane on Australia's east coast, a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said.
"Further inquiries are being pursued in relation to the source of the drugs," the spokesman said, adding that both AFP officers and overseas law enforcement personnel were involved.
He said the arrests of the Australians and seizure were the result of the largest investigation ever undertaken by the AFP, Australia's national police force. The investigation had lasted for more than two years, he said.
Arrests had been made in the states of Queensland, where the cannabis was seized, New South Wales and Victoria, and more would be made, he said.
The crew of an Australian-registered trawler MV Paulsun and those of smaller vessels to which cannabis had been unloaded were arrested following lengthy surveillance, he said.
Among those arrested in Sydney was a serving member of the AFP's Drug Operations Division," an AFP statement said.
Seven people appeared in Sydney's central local court in relation to the haul. The serving policeman was named as George Sabados, 27, of Sydney.
Two of those arrested were granted bail. Sabados and four others were remanded in custody. All will reappear in court on August 12.
REUTER
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950813, Latin America, SD UNION. Ex DEA Agent Celerino Castillo
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 17:55:05 +0000
From: Peter Webster
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: ABC Prime Time
Message-ID: <199512261750.SAA28688@HADES.MONACO.MC>
At the risk of cluttering up your mailboxes:
Flash! Ex-DEA Special Agent tells about PHONY WAR on Drugs onABC/ Prime Time Live: Wed 12/27.
Here's a pipeful to all the Patriots rallying in defense of our Liberty our Sanity and Free Enterprize! And let us not be deterred in our efforts to persuade Prosecutors throughout the land to leave off with the immoral prosecution
/persecution of the sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
America fights phony "War on Drugs"
by Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales (are co-authors of "Latino Spectrum," a syndicated column focusing on Latinos and Latin American affairs.) SD UNION, 8-13-95
In April, ex-Drug Enforcement Agency agent Celerino Castillo made a pilgrimage to the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington D.C., where he left his boots next to the name of a friend killed in the war. The Pharr, Texas, native also left his Bronze Star, which he earned for his covert actions in Southeast Asia in 1972, and a letter to the president:
"Dear President Clinton,
"In the 1980's, I spent six years in Central America as a special agent with the DEA. On January 14, 1986, I forewarned then Vice President George Bush of the U.S. government involvement in narcotics-trafficking (Oliver North)....but to no avail....
In display of my disappointment of my government, I am returning my Bronze Star, along with my last pair of jungle boots that I used in the jungles of Vietnam, Peru, Columbia, El Salvador and finally Guatemala."
Drug connection is exposed
While stationed in Central America, Castillo exposed the U.S. government's drug connection. He personally kept records on planes used in the U.S.-Contra resupply operation at Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador---arriving with guns and departing to the United States with cocaine from Columbia.
"Every single pilot involved in the operation was a documented drug trafficker, who appeared in DEA files," he says.
Castillo not only turned over his files to his superiors, but also confronted Bush with the information in Guatemala City---several months before American Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua, an incident which first exposed the Iran-Contra affair.
Had castillo testified at the Iran-Contra hearings, he says North would have gone to jail and both Bush and President Reagan would have been impeached. "But nobody ever subpoenaed me," he says, and notes that the DEA claimed no files ever existed.
"It was Bush's operation. In fact, it was impossible for President Reagan not to have known about it," says Castillo.
In the 1980's, the same allegations of government-sanctioned drug-trafficking were continually leveled by wild-eyed "radicals" and Central American peace activists. However, because of his position as special agent, Castillo's charges cannot easily be dismissed.
Amazingly, the drug operation at Ilopango was not a secret among U.S. and Salvadoran officials, he says. The Salvadoran military was perplexed as to why the drug connection was illegal. They thought it was simply part of the effort to topple the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
When Castillo started with the Drug Enforcement Agency in 1978, he was ready to fight against a scourge that had claimed many of his friends in Southeast Asia, only to find that U.S. intelligence agencies themselves were involved in drug-trafficking and the training of death squads.
Recent revelations by Congressman Robert Torrecelli of the CIA involvement in the deaths of an American and a revolutionary in Guatamala barely scratch the surface. The real tragedy is that for decades, thousands of Guatamalans have disappeared yearly, says Castillo. Torrecelli is expected to call for hearings this fall to investigate human-rights abuses against U.S. citizens in Guatamala.
"I'm ready to testify, and so are three other agents," says Castillo, hoping that the role of the intelligence services in the drug trade, death squads and "disappearances" will finally be exposed.
Because Castillo's findings went unheeded, he recently left the DEA and wrote a book, "Powder burns" (Mosaic Press), which documents his charges.
Drug traffic has increased
Castillo says that on the basis of his work, he is convinced that drug money is what finances U.S. covert operations worldwide. He believes that despite the "War on Drugs," there are more drugs coming into the United States today than 15 years ago and estimates that at least 75 percent of all narcotics enter the country with the acquiescence of or direct participation by U.S. and foreign intelligence services.
It is they who must be held accountable for the flood of drugs on our streets today, he says.
Similarly, the policy of turning a blind eye to drugs has created narco-democracies (governments tainted and funded by drug money) in Central and South America. That was the price of the U.S. war against communism, says Castillo.
Today, Castillo spends his time painting. One haunting image is of a Mayan warrior with an American flag in one hand, an M-16 in the other and a DEA helicopter with a skull insignia hovering overhead. The Mayan's face is that of his friend, a dead DEA agent felled in the drug war in Peru.
The image conjures up his plea to Clinton not to perpetuate this false "war": "Please do not do what Mr. Robert McNamara did regarding the Vietnam War."
JAL/Logic13@aol.com
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950819, Floyd County, KY, WKYU, KNN. Kentucky State Police
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 1995 11:20:55 -0400
From: PLTFIBER@aol.com
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: Judge Combs (KY): busted
Message-ID: <950826112054_63808839@MAIL02.MAIL.AOL.COM>
Combs acknowledges using pot
Former high court judge says it helps him sleep
By Lee Mueller
Eastern Kentucky Bureau
Former state Supreme Court Justice Combs acknowledged yesterday that he smokes marijuana at night, saying the illegal drug helps him sleep. Combs, 71, who resigned his seat on the state's highest court in June 1993 for health reasons, said in a telephone interview that he discovered "quite some time ago" that marijuana makes him sleepy.
He did not say precisely how long he has been smoking pot.
"I sleep like a baby" afterward, said Combs, who has had two strokes and suffers from a memory disorder. "I have a sleeping problem... I probably could have gotten a prescription for it if I'd asked my doctor, but I never did."
The medicinal use of marijuana is banned in the United States, although it was allowed by the federal government on a case-by-case basis from 1976 to 1992 for conditions such as glaucoma and nausea caused by chemotherapy.
Combs and his 16-year old son were charged last week with cultivation and possession of marijuana after Kentucky State Police searched his Floyd County home and reported finding 4 ounces of processed pot, drug paraphernalia and one plant growing in a container outside the home.
Combs did not say yesterday whether he owned any of the marijuana found in his home, but he indicated he considered what he does at home to be his own business.
"I never go out and I never drive" after smoking marijuana, he said. "I just stay in the privacy of my own bedroom....
"One joint would probably last me one or two days."
The search of his home upset Combs and his attorney, Eric Conn, who have suggested that some evidence was planted by state police. Conn also has filed an affidavit by Combs son, Alfred Ghent Combs, that claims troopers appeared to be pressured by Floyd District Judge James Allen Jr. to find something during the search.
State police have denied the allegations,. and Allen said this week he was bewildered by the affidavit. "I've always gotten along with Dan Jack," Allen said.
Conn, however, said Wednesday he has obtained corroborating evidence to the younger Combs sworn statement from Janice Keller, a friend of Combs from South Carolina.
Allen has scheduled a hearing Tuesday in Floyd District Court on the misdemeanor charges against Combs and a motion by Conn for Allen to step down from the case.
Appeals Court Judge Paul D. Gudgel, a member of the state's Judicial Retirement and Removal Commission, said yesterday the panel could not investigate or censure Combs if he smoked marijuana while he was a judge because it has been more than 120 days since Combs was on the bench.
Asked yesterday whether they were aware that Combs used marijuana, three judicial commission members -- lawyer Joe Savage of Lexington, Jefferson District Judge Charles Scott and Carroll District Judge Stan Billingsley -- said no.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert F. Stephens could not be reached for comment last night.
Capt. Robert Forsythe, commander of the Pikeville state police post, who has defended his officers' conduct during the raid at Combs' home, declined comment last night.
Combs said yesterday he had no idea who could have told police he might have marijuana in his home. Combs said he had not talked about it, and his two teenage sons wouldn't, either.
Police have declined to say who tipped them.
Conn said Combs agreed to let state police search his home only after they told him they had a search warrant.
But Forsythe said no search warrant was obtained, because Combs signed a consent form, permitting search. "If we'd had a search warrant,. we wouldn't have needed his consent," he said.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 11:43:45 -0400
From: PLTFIBER@aol.com
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: Combs says drug searchers were like 'Gestapo"
Message-ID: <950905114345_91534504@MAIL06.MAIL.AOL.COM>
Lexington Herald-Leader 9/4/95
Combs says drug searchers were like 'Gestapo'
by Jamie Lucke
Former Kentucky Supreme Court Judge Dan Jack Combs says state police invaded his Floyd County home "in a storm trooper sort of way" when they charged him with possession of marijuana last month.
But Combs, 71, who admits using pot to help him sleep says he's not fighting the misdemeanor charges to make the police look bad, even though he referred to the officers who conducted the search as "the Gestapo."
"There's no one who has more respect for law officers than I do if they're conducting themselves in a proper manner," Combs said yesterday in Lexington on "Your Government" on WLEX TV (Channel 18).
"What a person does in the privacy of his own home to me is sacrosanct and certainly should not be disturbed or invaded in a storm trooper sort of way as was done in my case."
On the advise of his attorney, Eric Conn, Combs declined to say whether he's still smoking himself to sleep. Last week Combs said he had quit using the illegal drug since he and his son were charged with possession and cultivation of marijuana Aug. 18.
Combs admits to smoking a joint on the frequent nights when "it looks like I'm going to be walking the floor to the wee hours."
But he repeated his claim that the 4 ounces of marijuana and one marijuana plant that police say they found at his home did not belong to him.
Combs and Conn say the evidence would have had to have been put there by someone other than Combs.
Combs' son Ghent, 16, and a friend of Combs who were at the house at the time have sworn that one of the state police officers reported by phone to someone he called Allen that they couldn't find anything illegal at Combs' residence.
Yesterday, Combs said he does not know whether the trooper was talking to Floyd District Judge James Allen, as originally alleged by Combs' son. The former justice said he knew only that Allen was the "name that was mentioned when the Gestapo was there the first time."
Combs stepped down from the Supreme Court in 1993 because of health problems. Yesterday, he said a memory disorder prevents him from being sure whether he used marijuana while still on the Supreme Court.
A psychiatrist testified in a civil case several years ago that Combs admitted using marijuana when he still was on the court.
In any case, Combs said it would not have affected his legal judgments. He challenged legal authorities to review the majority opinions and many dissents he wrote for signs of bias or unclear thinking.
Combs said he regrets letting police enter his home, which is in Betsy Layne, without a search warrant.
Combs. who also refused to say who supplied him with the drug, said he thinks marijuana should be legal "if it's used carefully and sparingly."
Combs said he uses it only "when I'm ready for bed. I never go out. I never drive. No one's in my room when I do it-smoking, that is."
-----------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 16:21:40 -0500 (EST)
From: HATHAWAY@stsci.edu
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: Re: more on Combs of the KY HIGH court
Message-ID: <01HUOV1OZF2A02YQWM@AVION.STSCI.EDU>
A Lexington psychiatrist who treated Combs for depression after a 1989 motorcycle accident confirmed under questioning that Combs used marijuana to help him sleep.
Dr. Robert Granacher said in the deposition that Combs surprised him by "telling the truth. Most patients would not admit that."
Granacher said the admission was not relevant to Combs' problem because marijuana does not cause major depression. Later, Granacher said he prescribed Prozac-a powerful antidepressant-for the judge. He also said he administered four shock treatments-at Combs' request-that temporarily relieved his depression.
???? What happened to patient/physician confidentiality? How is it this Dr. is telling details of his patient's treatment? If Combs gave him permission AND gave the police permission to enter his property without a warrant (as previously reported), he has got some real problems with understanding personal rights and how to protect them. Weird. I feel real sorry for the guy, but he seems to have forgotten the law. Good thing he did step down.
WHH
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 17:03:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill Redding
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: Re: more on Combs of the KY HIGH court
Message-ID:
On Wed, 30 Aug 1995 HATHAWAY@stsci.edu wrote:
???? What happened to patient/physician confidentiality? How is it this Dr. is telling details of his patient's treatment? If Combs gave him permission AND gave the police permission to enter his property without a warrant (as previously reported), he has got some real problems with understanding personal rights and how to protect them. Weird. I feel real sorry for the guy, but he seems to have forgotten the law. Good thing he did step down.
I believe, this is not necessarily the truth, that if a patient is indicted a physician is supposed to release pertinent information? And on reading about this case and what has happened I have the feeling that Combs may have wanted to be arrested. To make a stand...to show the world, or at least the US, that marijuana is used by many people. It is not the evil drug that the media and government say. Maybe.. just maybe this was his idea?
--
Bill Redding
lennon@simons-rock.edu
http://plato.simons-rock.edu/~lennon
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 13:20:44 -0400
From: PLTFIBER@aol.com
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: Doctor says Combs smoked pot as justice
Message-ID: <950829132041_86222288@EMOUT04.MAIL.AOL.COM>
Doctor says Combs smoked pot as justice
Lexington Herald-Leader Sunday Aug. 27, 1995
AP Louisville, KY
A Lexington psychiatrist who had treated former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Dan Jack Combs said in a court deposition that Combs smoked marijuana regularly during his tenure on the court.
Dr. Robert Granacher also said in the 1992 deposition that Combs underwent electric shock treatments in 1991 and 1992, when he was still on the state's highest court, to relieve suicidal depression, the Courier-Journal reported yesterday.
Granacher last night acknowledged giving the deposition but said he could not ethically comment on it because Combs is still his patient.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert F. Stephens also declined comment on the report last night.
Combs retired from the high court June 30, 1993, citing the fact that he had suffered two strokes and was having memory lapses.
Combs told the Herald-Leader last week that he smokes marijuana regularly to relieve insomnia but that he started only after retirement.
Asked Friday night about Granacher's testimony, Combs attorney, Eric Conn, said his client reiterated "his earlier position that to the best of his memory he only smoked marijuana subsequent to his supreme Court tenure."
Kentucky State Police, acting on a tip, raided Combs Floyd County home on August 18 and found a marijuana plant growing in his yard. Police also found 4 ounces of processed marijuana, pipes, water pipes and rolling papers scattered about his home.
Combs and his 16 year old son have been charged with possession and cultivation of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Combs said in a telephone interview Friday that his mental problem was similar to Alzheimer's disease.
His mental difficulties started about the time he joined the Supreme Court according to court testimony in a suit Combs filed against a drunken driver who knocked Combs off his motorcycle, Aug. 19, 1989.
In connection with the suit, Granacher testified about Combs mental condition after the accident. He first saw Combs March 19, 1990.
"He didn't feel like he could keep up with things, and he would not write opinions," Granacher said of Combs at his first visit. "He was depressed to the point he could not make his mind work to produce writing, to hear a case on the Supreme Court. ...He had thoughts of suicide, actually."
During this first visit, Combs told Granacher he regularly smoked marijuana, according to the court records.
"The judge surprised me by telling the truth," Granacher testified. "Most patients would not admit to that."
"Granacher said four electric shock treatments, administered from December 1991 through January 1992, improved Combs mood. But he said Combs' depression was permanent.
Under cross-examination, Granacher said Combs' daughter reported that he had been suffering from memory loss and concentration problems for two years before seeing Granacher.
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From: PLTFIBER@aol.com
To: drctalk@calyx.com
Subject: more on Combs of the KY HIGH court
Message-ID: <950830113017_87053727@EMOUT04.MAIL.AOL.COM>
Lexington Herald-Leader
Aug. 29, 1995
Combs son's allegations lead to judge's withdrawal from case
By Lee Mueller, Eastern Kentucky Bureau
Prestonburg, KY
As the swarm of TV and newspaper reporters left the Floyd County Courthouse yesterday, Dan Jack Combs watched from under a nearby shade tree.
The 71-year old former state Supreme Court justice grinned broadly and leaned forward on his toes. "Is High Times here, too?" he asked, referring to a national pro-marijuana magazine.
It was kind of a joke: Combs' droll comment on the hubbub that has developed since Aug. 18 when state police acting on a tip-found a marijuana plant growing in his backyard at Betsy Layne.
What began as a rather routine drug raid-Combs and his 16 year old son, Ghent, were charged with possession and cultivation of marijuana, both misdemeanors-turned into the stuff of which national TV programs are made after Combs acknowledged he had smoked pot for quite some time to help him sleep.
Yesterday, Floyd District Judge James Allen Jr. stepped down from the case because Combs' son alleged-falsely Allen said-that Allen helped orchestrate the police search that turned up water pipes, rolling papers and 4 ounces of marijuana at Combs' home.
Still to come, however, is an appearance on a new CBS News program, "Day & Date" which Combs' attorney, Eric Conn of Stanville ,said was billed to him as a cross between "Entertainment Tonight" and "Good Morning America."
Combs, who was elected to the Supreme Court in 1988 after five years on the state appellate court, retired in 1993, citing health problems. As a judge, he was outspoken on behalf of constitutional rights and plain-spoken about his life and lifestyle, which included riding a motorcycle and attending seances.
Combs said yesterday he has no memory of smoking marijuana before he retired form the bench, but said he has a memory problem similar to Alzheimer's disease, brought on by two strokes and other factors.
"I may have-but never while court was in session." Combs said of using marijuana. "I'm sorry, I wish I did have total recall, but I don't. I used to have an excellent memory. I could quote Thanatopsis," a poem.
A1992 deposition in a Pike County civil case indicates Combs smoked pot while he was a judge.
A Lexington psychiatrist who treated Combs for depression after a 1989 motorcycle accident confirmed under questioning that Combs used marijuana to help him sleep.
Dr. Robert Granacher said in the deposition that Combs surprised him by "telling the truth. Most patients would not admit that."
Granacher said the admission was not relevant to Combs' problem because marijuana does not cause major depression. Later, Granacher said he prescribed Prozac-a powerful antidepressant-for the judge. He also said he administered four shock treatments-at Combs' request-that temporarily relieved his depression.
Dr. Mary Lee Harper, director of the University of Kentucky's drug information center, said yesterday that if Combs were smoking marijuana and taking Prozac at the same time, "there are no studies indicating there are problems with mixing the two."
Last week, before he was aware of Granacher's deposition, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert F. Stephens said he saw no indication that Combs smoked pot while on the high court.
The chief justice stuck by that observation this week.
Stephens said he knew nothing about Combs' taking Prozac, having shock treatments or the validity of the drug charges.
"All I can tell you is, you've got to remember why the man quit the court-because he realized he was having a problem," Stephens said. "And if that doesn't say something for him, I guess I have the entirely wrong standards to judge human beings."
"When he began to fail, he knew it-and he quit."
In yesterday's hearing, Allen read a statement, saying he was stepping down to avoid "even the appearance of impropriety."
"I will step aside, not because I believe there are grounds in the motion and affidavit for me to do so, but because I want the defendant to feel that he will be heard with the neutrality of an impartial judge."
Allen said he would ask that a special judge be appointed to hear other motions, including one to quash results of the police search.
Combs said he has not smoked marijuana since the search but hopes to continue the practice. Marijuana, which he called one of "God's foods," helps him sleep and should be legalized for medicinal purposes, he said.
Given the nationwide interest his case has attracted, however, Combs said he expects it will be difficult for him to obtain the drug.
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950831, Cleveland, OH, AP. County Judge Michael Gallagher who
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 95 10:21:54 PDT
From: AP
Newgroups: clari.local.ohio, clari.news.drugs, clari.news.crime.misc
Subject: Judge Indicted On Drug Charges
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A county judge who favored legalizing drugs was indicted on cocaine charges after offering the drug to an undercover federal agent.
Judge Michael Gallagher could face 68 years in prison and a $3 million fine if convicted on all five counts. Gallagher, 39, was put on an indefinite paid leave of absence.
Gallagher, a Republican, said after his 1990 election that he favored legalizing drugs but would follow state guidelines on mandatory sentences. He made the comments after granting early probation to a teacher who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison on a drug charge.
The judge was arrested Aug. 4 after he showed an undercover Drug Enforcement Agent two lines of cocaine inside a jewelry box and rolled a bill of paper money for use in inhaling one of the lines, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Edwards said.
Gallagher has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Mark B. Marein, said there would be no comment.
The alleged cocaine dealing occurred from June through August.
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950911, Washington, DC, Washington Weekly, Sarah McClendon. At a
Date: Mon Sep 11, 1995 10:20 pm CST
From: John Q. Public
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: capmicro@execpc.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Sarah McClendon: Are Dems and GOP Using Drug Money?
The following appears in the 9/11 edition of the Washington Weekly, and is posted here with permission:
SARAH MCCLENDON ASKS WHITE HOUSE ABOUT DRUG PROFITS
White House Press Conference, September 7, 1995.
MS. MCCLENDON: Mike, I understand that Vice President Gore has told President Clinton that he understands that the government is letting sale from - profits from narcotics which are coming in here be used, be laundered and be used to finance both political parties. Mr. Clinton was apparently not aware of this, but Mr. Bush apparently was. And Mr. Gore has insisted that it be stopped. And Mr. Clinton, I understand, is now saying that he will take some steps to stop this financing of political parties, both political parties, by profits from drugs coming into this country for sale which are ruining the country. Now, I wonder when Mr. Clinton is going to start his movement on this and what he's going to do.
MR. MCCURRY: I haven't heard any of that before. That sounds like the plot for a very good novel. But I haven't heard -
MS. MCCLENDON: Now, don't make fun of it, Mike, because it's true. It's true.
MR. MCCURRY: I'm not making fun of it. If it's true -
MS. MCCLENDON: Just go and check it with the President.
MR. MCCURRY: All right. I'll go ask the President if he's taken any steps on that and report back to you.
[We'll be waiting -Editor]
Copyright (c) 1995 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)
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950921.
Date: Thu Sep 21, 1995 8:21 pm CST
From: snet l
EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Who is Colin Powell?
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WHO IS COLIN POWELL? (I)
"Ye shall be known by the company that ye keep."
21 September 95
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Who is Colin Powell, the media's favorite candidate for president?
#Colin Powell is a close friend of Richard Armitage:
“He is an independent. He's registered independent,” says former assistant secretary of defense *Richard Armitage*, who may be *Powell's closest friend* (and who insists he doesn't want the general to run). “I don't know that he'd feel entirely comfortable in either party.”
(Newsweek, 10/10/94, p.20)
But, according to Ross Perot, Richard Armitage is part of the drug-smuggling, money-laundering Washington cabal:
Beyond Perot's frustration at feckless government, though, lies a deeper motive for his candidacy. Friends and colleagues say Perot believes that powerful forces in Washington -- and George Bush specifically -- have betrayed an undetermined number of American fighting men in Southeast Asia. He is convinced that the conspiracy of neglect springs from a desire to protect some elements of the government that have been engage engaged in a corrupt and long-term relationship with narcotics traffickers in that part of the world. [...]
Perot's theory has its roots in Vietnam. In the late 1950s, when operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency intensified intelligence gathering in Laos, the United States began forging operational alliances with two groups. The first was the Royal Laotian Army. The second was the Hmong, a migratory tribe that had thrived for centuries in the hills of northern Laos.
The area comprises one leg of Southeast Asia's so-called Golden Triangle. By 1971, the region was a major supplier of high-grade heroin to the United States. At about this same time, the growing number of American heroin addicts had increased both demand and price for the drug. Exports from northern Laos rose accordingly.
The CIA's role. The Hmong and the Royal Laotian Army thrived. Both had been deeply involved in the opium trade for years. The CIA was right in the middle. By the late 1960s, it had recruited a force of some 9,000 Hmong and installed as their field commander an ambitious lieutenant colonel named Vang Pao. Like Hmong chieftains before him, Vang Pao was involved in opium trafficking. Historian Alfred W. McCoy, author of the “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” says bluntly: “The CIA's covert-action assets [became] the leading heroin dealers in Laos.”
According to friends, Perot believes that the conspiracy against the POWs and MIAs began almost the minute the war ended on April 30, 1975. He and others argue that it was possible at that point for the United States to make considerable progress in identifying and beginning to secure the release of prisoners of war and in resolving conflicting reports about the hundreds of soldiers missing in action. But the government's interest seemed to flag. One of the main reasons, in Perot's mind, was George Bush, who became director of central intelligence in 1976. Perot has complained that little effort was made during Bush's tenure at the CIA on the POW/MIA issue. Indeed, soon after Bush's departure, the CIA relinquished all responsibility for POW/MIA reports. The matter was transferred to the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. [...]
Perot was furious, though, because he began to believe that the reason for the apparent lack of effort had to do with the CIA's involvement in heroin trafficking in Southeast Asia. It is unclear from these accounts whether Perot believes that the CIA used profits from drug trafficking to fund covert operations or how long such activity may have persisted.
Perot's basic charges are disputed by several official and unofficial inquiries. The CIA's inspector general examined allegations about agency links to drug runners in June 1972 and found that “local officials with whom we are in contact ... have been or may be still involved in one way or another in the drug business.” The report also concluded, however, that there was “no evidence” that “any senior officer of the agency has sanctioned or supported drug trafficking as a matter of policy.” Then and now, that was considered by many to be a weasel-word response that raised more questions than it answered. [...]
Still, Perot's associates say he remains unconvinced that the CIA put much distance between itself and the drug business. His suspicions center on two institutions and one individual. Australia-based Nugan Hand Bank failed in 1983 with the mysterious death of one partner, Francis John Nugan, and the subsequent disappearance of the other, Michael John Hand. Hand was a highly decorated Green Beret who reportedly worked as a contract employee for the CIA in Southeast Asia.
Nugan Hand drew the attention of investigators from Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines for three reasons. First was the massive fraud that cost investors millions of dollars. Second was the bank's ties to known and suspected drug traffickers. Third was the unusual number of retired American military and intelligence officials on its payroll.
In Nugan Hand, Perot reportedly believes, drugs and intelligence agents had joined forces once again. [...]
Flimsy evidence. The other suspicious outfit was Hawaii-based Bishop, Baldwin. Its chairman was a con man named Ronald Rewald. Like Nugan Hand, Bishop, Baldwin had a lot of former intelligence officers on the payroll. At his trial, Rewald claimed that Bishop, Baldwin was a CIA front company. Although the CIA petitioned to have some evidence in the criminal proceedings sealed, there was little to support Rewald's defense. He is now serving an 80-year prison term for fraud and other crimes. [...]
The individual at the top of Perot's suspect list is *Richard Armitage*, a highly regarded former assistant secretary of defense and close friend of Gen. *Colin Powell*, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Armitage currently serves as point man for the Bush administration's aid program to the republics of the former Soviet Union. In 1975 and 1976, he served on the staff of the U.S. defense representative to Iran. Friends say Perot has suggested that Armitage had ties to Bishop, Baldwin and that he obstructed efforts to obtain answers about prisoners and soldiers missing in action. [...]
(US News & World Report, 6/1/92)
#Colin Powell was a protege of Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci.
[Powell's] rise was spectacular, not just in the army, but in political Washington as well. *Weinberger and Carlucci* insisted on bringing Powell along with them -- first as Weinberger's military aide when he became secretary of defense, then as Carlucci's deputy national-security adviser, then as Carlucci's successor: national-security adviser to Ronald Reagan -- and finally as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George Bush.
(Newsweek, 10/10/94)
Weinberger (subject of much net.speculation of late) was implicated in Iran-Contra crimes. With Carlucci, things are less clear. However, *The Nation* ran an article about him that was summarized this way:
Carlucci's Three Faces. Frank Carlucci, the new Secretary of Defense, is depending on the headlines you prefer, a bland and poised ‘competent manager’ or a bedraggled ‘quintessential survivor’ or a more sinister-sounding ‘diplomat, businessman, spy.’
(Nation, 12/19/87)
Who *is* Colin Powell?
One thing can be said: He has poor taste in friends.
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