ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701200077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 21, 1997.
A headline in Monday's newspaper incorrectly said that drug informant
Javvier Cruz would be in Roanoke federal court today. A Drug Enforcement
Administration official had said only that Cruz would be in court
sometime this month. A grand jury was to convene today.
Federal drug informant Javier Cruz will be back in federal court this month, a DEA official has assured the family of a man Cruz killed.
An official with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would not confirm that to a reporter, but a grand jury is scheduled to convene Tuesday in Roanoke.
Cruz, a cocaine trafficker in Roanoke until his arrest in 1991, has been free since 1992, working for the DEA in an international money-laundering investigation.
Cruz killed Mark Garrett, a Charlotte subcontractor, in 1987 and was wanted on a first-degree murder charge until he was caught in the Roanoke investigation. He was allowed to plead to the reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter after becoming an informant.
DEA officials from Washington, D.C., flew to Charlotte last month to meet with Garrett's family. Their trip followed reports in The Roanoke Times, and later The Charlotte Observer, that DEA agents had asked a Charlotte prosecutor to drop a first-degree murder charge against Cruz because he was such a valuable informant.
The Garretts were upset with the plea agreement when it was entered in 1992, but were assured that Cruz would have to serve a substantial federal sentence on drug charges. They are angry that he is still free and are anxious to see him sentenced in federal court.
Publicity about his case in November forced Cruz to leave the Roanoke area, where he ran Temptations, a restaurant owned by his wife.
Peter Gruden, one of the officials who met with the Garretts, told them that the DEA had nothing to do with Cruz's plea bargain. He acknowledged that the agency needed the murder charge resolved in order to send Cruz to Colombia to work for the government, but denied that DEA agents intervened to get the charge reduced.
After being sentenced to three years for involuntary manslaughter in August 1992, Cruz was credited with 16 months for time served in jail awaiting sentencing. He was then released after serving one week in a North Carolina prison.
Gruden, who oversees the DEA regional office that includes Virginia, would not discuss the matter with a reporter other than to say that a DEA agent did not ask prosecutor Steve Ward to drop the charge.
Ward, however, has said he refused the DEA's request to drop the murder case completely but agreed to let Cruz plead to involuntary manslaughter because of weaknesses in the case. Ward did not return calls seeking further comment.
Glenda Garrett, the victim's mother, said she was not convinced by the DEA's denial.
"It was a wasted trip," she said. "I asked them not to come since I didn't know anything they could say to me that would make me feel better or help the situation. But they insisted."
Cruz was a fugitive, wanted on the murder charge, until his arrest in 1991 following a DEA investigation into his Roanoke used-car lot. He was trafficking large amounts of cocaine through the car lot and living under a false name.
A native of Colombia, Cruz said his ties to the Cali cartel made him a valuable informant for the DEA. The Cali cartel is an organized crime group believed to supply 80 percent of the world's cocaine.
Cruz was indicted on drug trafficking charges in 1991, soon after his arrest. He didn't plead guilty, however, until four years later.
As part of another plea agreement, Cruz pleaded guilty in Roanoke federal court in 1995 to five federal charges involving cocaine trafficking, but he has yet to be sentenced. The charges carry a mandatory life sentence, but cooperating with the government can reduce a defendant's sentence. Cruz said he hopes to get probation.
Since he has been working for the DEA, Cruz has been arrested at least twice - in 1994 on drug charges in Colombia and in 1995 on a rape charge in Roanoke County. His attorney, Bill Cleaveland, declined to comment on the arrests while the case is still pending.
Normally, a judge would consider revoking bond after a defendant is arrested. But U.S. District Judge James Turk said he was not aware of any arrests.
Cruz pleaded guilty in federal court on the same day - Sept. 11, 1995 - that the rape charge was dropped in Roanoke County, according to court records. It is unclear which hearing came first and whether he was still facing the charge when he appeared before Turk that day. Cruz's case file remains sealed.
"The only way I would know about it would be if pretrial services or the U.S. attorney's office, by way of a motion, informed me," Turk said. "Nobody's been to see me about it at all."
Supervising U.S. Probation Officer Buddy Ross, whose office handles pretrial services, said Cruz is not on pretrial supervision and so his office did not know about any arrests. Defendants released on bond normally are supervised by a probation officer.
The court may not have imposed supervision on Cruz because he was working closely with DEA agents. But Ross said all defendants on bond are subject to at least two conditions: they must not violate any laws, and they must show up for court appearances.
It would be the responsibility of the U.S. attorney's office to notify the court of arrests in such circumstances, he said. U.S. Attorney Bob Crouch did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.
The circumstances of the arrest in Colombia are unclear, but it apparently occurred while Cruz was working as an informant. The rape charge was dismissed after the Bedford County woman who made the complaint said she didn't want to proceed with the case.
Gruden said an internal review of the DEA operation involving Cruz continues. He said he didn't know about the Colombia arrest.
While the DEA does its own review, members of Congress have asked the DEA about its handling of the case.
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from Charlotte, wrote to the DEA in December, asking for an explanation of what the DEA did to help Cruz out of the murder charge. She said she is concerned that there might have been some "improper influence used on Mr. Cruz's behalf."
"I am extremely concerned about the appearance of possible impropriety in this case," she wrote to DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine. "Please provide me with an explanation of the circumstances surrounding this incident and any further actions planned against Mr. Cruz."
Myrick's press secretary said she has not received a response.
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said earlier that the DEA told his office that its agents had nothing to do with Cruz's plea bargain and that he is interested in what the Justice Department has to say publicly about the case.
Constantine declined a request for an interview, referring questions to Gruden.
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