Subscribe in a ReaderDrug case dismissed; defendant framed by informant
December 24th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News
People do get framed. And informants do lie to the police. And yes, the police can be wrong. The full article by Mike Carter can be found here.
Federal prosecutors have dismissed a felony drug indictment against a Cowlitz County man and have exposed an audacious undercover informant who had framed the man right beneath the noses of drug agents.
Tina Rivard, 40, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to charges of obstructing justice and conspiracy to obstruct a criminal investigation after she was able to fool agents of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force into believing she’d set up meetings and bought oxycodone — a powerful narcotic painkiller — from the 21-year-old man, whom she already knew.
She faces up to 20 years in prison — the same amount of time the man she had framed could have served, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Rivard was able to undermine so-called “controlled buys” that were set up and monitored by task-force detectives.
“It was clever,” assistant U.S. attorney Ron Friedman said Sunday. “It took a lot of audacity.”
Rivard, according to court documents, was first arrested in May for forging prescriptions for narcotics. Agents offered her a deal — leniency in exchange for her cooperation in building cases against prescription-drug dealers in the community. She was never charged with the forgery.
Rivard helped in one case, Friedman said. Then she identified the 21-year-old Kelso man — a former standout high-school athlete with no criminal history — as a source of illegal oxycodone pills.
In building their case, agents would punch the suspect’s telephone number into Rivard’s cellphone, and then hand it to her to complete the call. Instead, Rivard would secretly speed-dial another man.
Court documents said Rivard already had told that man she was a police informant and he had agreed to pose as the target in these phone calls, making incriminating statements and setting up drug deals while agents listened.
In one instance, the documents say, Rivard went to the 21-year-old’s home with $4,000 in cash given to her by agents to purchase 100 oxycodone tablets. After she arrived at the man’s house and was out of sight of detectives, the other man showed up and went inside, according to the documents.
Rivard exited the home with the drugs, and told police she’d bought them from the 21-year-old man, the court documents say.
Agents were suspicious that another person had gone into the house, the documents say, but Rivard was able to allay their concerns by having them monitor another phone call to the “suspect.”
Again, court papers say, the agent dialed the number — and again Rivard secretly phoned the other man, who posed as the suspect and offered an innocent explanation for the incident.
Based on that transaction and the phone calls, the task force in August obtained a five-count felony indictment against the 21-year-old man.
Rivard eventually admitted it was the other man who had brought the drugs to the suspect’s house and given them to her, according to court documents.
The felony indictment against the Kelso man was dismissed last month.
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug-possession charge, because he had four narcotic pills in his pocket when he was arrested.
The impostor has not been charged in connection with the case. Friedman would say only that the investigation is continuing.
“It is a very useful example for the classroom of law enforcement,” Friedman said. “The lesson is that is there is room for misconduct, it will happen.”
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Seattle Police Dept. in Court Over Alleged Misconduct
December 18th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News
Read Jonah Spangenthal-Lee’s full article here.
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Recording a Police Interrogation
December 8th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News
NEW YORK (AP) — A teenage suspect who secretly recorded his interrogation on an MP3 player has landed a veteran detective in the middle of perjury charges, authorities said Thursday.
Unaware of the recording, Detective Christopher Perino testified in April that the suspect “wasn’t questioned” about a shooting in the Bronx, a criminal complaint said. But then the defense confronted the detective with a transcript it said proved he had spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to persuade Erik Crespo to confess - at times with vulgar tactics.
Once the transcript was revealed in court, prosecutors asked for a recess, defense attorney Mark DeMarco said. The detective was pulled from the witness stand and advised to get a lawyer.
In this case the Prosecutor’s made a new offer to the Defendant (going down from 25 years to 7 years). In any event, you are better off ending any questioning with police by asking for a lawyer.
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New Changes In Sight
December 8th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News
Rick Anderson’s Blog post can be found here. As you can read below, it appears that there is a dissonance between what should be done, what can be done and what will be done.
That King County Council committee hearing yesterday was a start, at least, in making sure jail administrators and executive Ron Sims finally make changes at the downtown lockup. Council members seemed to agree with our report this week on how federal findings on jail deaths and civil rights violations were received with some of the same ol’ bureaucratic shoulder shrugging of the past. “There’s a huge divide between ‘room for improvement’ and what’s in the report,” council member Bob Ferguson said of the reaction to the Justice Department findings.
Still, will the message really sink in? The P-I reports that King County jailers will merely “re-examine” their use of hair-holds to subdue inmates, and the Times notes that corrections director Reed Holtgeerts says his jail administration is cooperating with the feds “as much as we can.”
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New Traffic Laws for 2008
December 7th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News, Traffic
If you have been on the fence about purchasing one of those fancy blue tooth devices for your cell phone, the new traffic laws should help inspire you. Need a great New Years resolution? How about, I will not text while driving.
Under the new laws, a driver who performs text messaging or talks on a cell phone without a hands-free device could face a $101 ticket. The “text-messaging ban” takes effect Jan. 1. The “cell-phone law” will be enforced starting in July 2008.
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Prosecutor Pushes McIver Case Forward
December 6th, 2007 Filed Under Legal News
Full Article by Aimee Curl from the Seattle Weekly can be found here.
Prosecutors today won a motion to require Marlaina Kiner-McIver to give a deposition in the domestic violence case against her husband, Council member Richard McIver. District Court Judge Linda Thompson also moved McIver’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin Monday, to January 14 to give time for the deposition to take place.
McIver has pled not guilty to fourth-degree assault. Efforts by the prosecution to keep the case alive are being called political by attorneys for both the council member and his wife.
But King County Deputy Prosecutor David Martin argued that the deposition was necessary since “it appears Mrs. Kiner-McIver is not going to obey this court’s subpoena.” (Prosecutors have agreed that without her testimony they won’t be able to use what she told police when they responded to the McIver home early Oct. 10.)
Kiner-McIver’s lawyer Vonda Sargent told the court her client won’t ignore the subpoena to testify, but stood by an earlier statement that Kiner-McIver won’t participate in the prosecution of her husband. Sargent explained later that her client would obey the court’s request to appear, but likely take the Fifth Amendment so she won’t have to testify.
“A case that you are going to be able to charge out, you should be able to prove without the presence of the alleged victim,” Sargent said after the hearing. If not, she says, domestic violence cases are customarily dropped. She called the prosecutor’s move “grandstanding.”
“I don’t want to be flip, but this is not the trial of the century,” Sargent said.
Sargent wasn’t alone in thinking so. There were audible grumbles from the crowded courtroom from others waiting in line for other cases to be heard. Said one lawyer, “You’d think this was a felony case or something,” before adding that this case never would’ve gone this far if it didn’t involve a public official.
Both McIver and Kiner-McIver were in court today. They seemed to intentionally avoid eye contact and per the no-contact order, which is still in force, said nothing to each other when they passed in the hallway. McIver has been staying for nearly two months at the house of a family friend in their South Seattle neighborhood. He said not having any contact with his wife has been difficult. There have been no motions to remove or relax the no-contact order over the holidays.
Sargent said pushing the case forward is a waste of time and money and indicated that her client will also likely plead the Fifth during the deposition.
Update:
Full Article can be found here.
Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver’s wife is expected to assert her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent instead of testifying against him in his domestic violence case.In a court declaration, Marlaina Kiner-McIver said she has “a genuine concern” that her testimony could lead to her being prosecuted because it would not match what she’s already said about the night he’s accused of assaulting her.
“If compelled to answer questions regarding the matters at issue in this case … I would provide answers that are substantially different than the statements that I have previously made regarding these same matters,” she said in the statement.
She said that after talking with her attorney, she believes she has no choice but to decline to answer any further questions about the incident.
The councilman is charged with fourth-degree assault for allegations that he grabbed her repeatedly by the throat and arm Oct. 10 during a drunken dispute in their South Seattle home.
Kiner-McIver’s declaration came as King County prosecutors asked for a court order requiring the woman to give a deposition in the case.
On Wednesday, District Court Judge Linda Thompson ordered Kiner-McIver to give the deposition — answering questions about the incident — by Dec. 21. She also postponed the councilman’s trial until Jan. 14.
Kiner-McIver will submit to the deposition as required, but will answer each question by invoking the Fifth Amendment, her attorney, Vonda Sargent, said Wednesday. Sargent said she expects that the woman would likely do the same at her husband’s trial — if there is one.
“If your case rises and falls on the testimony of one person in this type of case, it’s not a case that should have been filed,” Sargent said.
She said Kiner-McIver already has been interviewed by police and prosecutors twice and should not have to go through a deposition — nor should she have had to go to court Wednesday to address the issue. “The purported victim of this crime is being victimized by the state,” she said.
In court documents, prosecutors said they sought the deposition because Sargent has publicly said Kiner-McIver would ignore a subpoena to show up at her husband’s trial. Prosecutors say they may be able to use a deposition in a trial if they can show that a witness is “unavailable.”
“There can be little doubt that McIver’s testimony is material to this case,” Deputy Prosecutor David Martin wrote.
Sargent maintained that she never said Kiner-McIver would ignore a subpoena — only that she understood the legal consequences of doing so, and that she “is not going to participate in the prosecution” of her husband.
McIver’s attorney, Todd Maybrown, declined to comment on the court-ordered deposition. He is not asking to interview Kiner-McIver about what happened that night.
Prosecutors say Kiner-McIver called 911 just after midnight Oct. 10 and, concerned about her husband’s political career, hung up. A 911 operator called back as police headed to the couple’s home.
According to court documents, Kiner-McIver told the operator she and her husband got into a purely verbal argument, but she later told police he came home drunk, launched into a profane tirade and physically came at her.
McIver was arrested, spent two nights in jail and was freed without bail. He remains under court order not to contact his wife.
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Washington’s enhanced driver’s license attracting int’l attention
December 1st, 2007 Filed Under Legal News, The Canadian Border and Criminal Convictions
You can read the full article by Glenn Farley at KING5 News here.
SEATTLE - Hand wringing over more stringent requirements at the border between Washington and British Columbia has now attracted attention of border states and provinces around North America.
Officials are closely monitory the effort by Washington and British Columbia to come up with the first enhanced driver’s licenses that would meet more stringent requirements by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and yet allowing drivers to avoid the hassle and expense of getting a passport.
The program is scheduled to begin rolling out in January.
Washington State Department of Licensing spokeswoman Gigi Zenk says the program is voluntary, and the card will be different than the typical driver’s license. First, it will be visually different, and will likely have a red banner across the top. The card will also have an RFID, or Radio Frequency Identity Tag. That tag will have a number that a border agent can access and reconfirm with the state that the person crossing is really you.
As of now under the plan, a person seeking one of these licenses will need to set up an appointment with the Department of Licensing. If you already have a passport it will be accepted as your birth certificate. If you don’t have a passport, you’ll need to bring a certified birth certificate.
British Columbia is on a parallel track.
On Wednesday, an organization called the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region organized a “webinar” to connect with other states and provinces in the U.S. ,Canada and Mexico that are interested in setting up their own programs.
According to Homeland Security, residents of states and provinces who volunteer, apply for and qualify for enhanced driver’s licenses can then use them at land and sea ports of entry. This does not apply to airplane flights.
In June of 2006, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell met at a regional economic summit to talk about finding alternatives to what was then a looming requirement to have a passport for a border crossing that traditionally required only a simple driver’s license as proof of identity.
In March of this year, Governor Gregoire and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff signed a memorandum of understanding allowing Washington to proceed with a pilot project
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