THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120596
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 270 lines
Two alleged members of a major Portsmouth heroin ring had their sentences reduced Wednesday, and at least five others could receive new trials or reduced sentences, because federal agents secretly let a key informant have sex in FBI offices in exchange for his cooperation.
During a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the life sentence of Marvin A. Pointer was reduced to 12 1/2 years and the 30-year sentence of co-defendant Tyrone Staton was reduced to 12 years. Both Pointer and Staton already have served four years in prison.
Federal authorities admitted in court documents that, in 1990, drug supplier Gary Weathers was allowed to have sex with his wife, Cynlithia, several times in the FBI's Norfolk office. Twins were conceived during one of the trysts, records show. Weathers also had sex with a girlfriend in the office, federal authorities acknowledged.
The trysts were not revealed until October, when Pointer - sentenced largely because of Weathers' testimony - filed an appeal asking for a new trial on the grounds that federal prosecutors and FBI agents had violated his constitutional right to a fair trial. The credibility of both Weathers and James Watters, the lead FBI agent in the case, were major factors in the defenses of Pointer and his co-defendants.
``This is one person who took on the federal government and won,'' said Pointer's lawyer, James Broccoletti.
The admission by authorities means that at least five men described as some of the largest drug suppliers on the East Coast will be retried or resentenced because of tainted evidence. They include Portsmouth dealer Fernando Blow and three other men who received life sentences.
In addition, Pointer said his lawyer was told that the sentence of Antonio Charles Blow - the Portsmouth heroin kingpin who led the gang until his August 1988 arrest - may also be affected. However, Pointer provided no details. Antonio Blow, brother of Fernando Blow, was sentenced in June 1989 to 25 years without parole. Because his trial occurred two years before Pointer's, he is not officially considered a co-defendant.
The case was one of at least three federal drug cases last year in which accusations of secret deals with witnesses were confirmed.
In Atlanta, federal authorities acknowledged at least two cases in which incarcerated witnesses were allowed conjugal visits - or ``picnics'' - in the federal courthouse. And in Chicago, the convictions of 54 members of the murderous El Rukn drug gang were overturned or remanded by federal judges after investigators found that alcohol, drugs and sex were provided to gang members who testified against their peers.
Wednesday's hearing before Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. was so low-key that no evidence was presented.
Papers filed by federal prosecutors acknowledge that Weathers had ``conjugal visits'' with both his wife and girlfriend in FBI offices during the spring of 1990. ``It also appears that law enforcement officers working on these cases, including Watters, were aware in 1990 (before the trials of Pointer and Staton) of these conjugal visits,'' the papers say.
Court papers indicate that a state police investigator and the Drug Enforcement Administration also may have been involved. But authorities would not give further details or say whether disciplinary action had been taken against the agents, stating that a Justice Department investigation is under way.
Although Pointer said he was glad for the sentence reduction, he thought he should be released because of the government's misconduct. ``What kind of justice is this?'' he said in a prison interview before Wednesday's hearing. ``They're the ones who lied and I'm the one who serves time.''
Yet on Wednesday, Pointer had a hard time concealing his glee. He smiled often and waved to his family in court.
When Broccoletti was summoned to the Justice Department offices in Washington on Dec. 7, he was told by prosecutors that even without Weathers' and Watters' testimony - which portrayed Pointer as Weathers' ``first lieutenant'' - there was enough evidence against Pointer for an 11- to 14-year sentence. He could have opted for a new trial, but the outcome would be a gamble, Pointer said.
``I'm going to take the deal only because I want to spare my family the stress and pain,'' Pointer said. ``That, plus we're out of money. It's cost my family nearly $17,000 in legal fees to get this far.''
Weathers was a drug wholesaler who supplied Antonio Blow, the Portsmouth heroin dealer whose 1988 trial exposed an extensive heroin underworld. In 1989, Blow was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
In 1990 and 1991, Fernando Blow and 10 others, described as members of Antonio Blow's drug empire, got sentences ranging from three years in prison to life without parole.
Pointer's allegations named FBI agent Watters, the lead agent in the investigation of Blow's gang, and Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Charles D. Griffith Jr., who was then an assistant U.S. attorney, as those responsible for either setting up the trysts or failing to tell defense attorneys of their existence.
There is no evidence that Griffith knew of the sexual favors. He is named in Pointer's appeal because the tryst - and its subsequent suppression - happened while he was prosecuting the case.
Griffith would not comment. In October, he said: ``I knew nothing about it and certainly condoned no such thing. It's just not appropriate to award cooperative witnesses that kind of benefit. We don't make deals like that.''
At the center of Pointer's charges is FBI agent James Watters. Pointer accused the veteran agent of setting up the sex-for-testimony deal and suppressing evidence. Cynlithia Weathers said in her affidavit that the FBI set up and approved the meetings. ``The very people in whom we place a high degree of trust . . . violated its appointment,'' said Pointer's motion.
Larry E. Torrence, special agent in charge of the Norfolk FBI office, would not comment and would not allow Watters to comment. Torrence did say, however, that no disciplinary action would be taken until an investigation was complete.
Federal authorities would not give details about Watters. A veteran agent at the Norfolk office, he was involved in the John Walker family spy-ring case, news reports show.
Federal authorities have said privately that Watters denies the charges and blames the trysts on subordinate agents who have since been transferred.
Since 1988, Gary Weathers has made many deals, records show. That year, his best customer, Antonio Blow, gave a list to a policewoman naming some of his associates. Weathers was on that list. Pointer was, too.
Soon Blow was arrested, and in June 1989 he was sentenced to 25 years without parole.
A month later, federal and local drug agents arrested Weathers in a Virginia Beach hotel. The agents seized about 25 ounces of cocaine, a and ammunition, a camouflaged flak jacket and $19,000. Cynlithia also was arrested, but charges against her were dropped at the request of prosecutors.
Griffith would later say that Blow, Weathers and others were part of a $20 million drug ring that smuggled narcotics from Northeastern cities to Hampton Roads from 1984 to 1990. During that period, police believed Portsmouth was responsible for about 90 percent of the area's heroin sales.
In November 1989, Weathers pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities. In February 1990, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison without parole. The prospect of the years stretching before him was more than he could handle, court records show.
During ``countless conversations'' in January and February of 1990, ``Weathers expressed to me that he was seriously bitter at'' several members of the old drug gang, said his Petersburg cellmate, Quincy Davis, in an affidavit filed in federal court. He was angry ``because one had slept with his wife, one owed him money and the others weren't trying to help him or had blackballed his name,'' Davis said.
``Weathers was truly afraid of the inmates and was breaking down emotionally,'' Davis said. He told Davis ``he couldn't do the time he was sentenced to do . . ., (he) said that he would . . . help set anyone up for crimes not committed or lie against anyone, in order to get out.''
But Davis wasn't the only person Weathers talked to of his fears. In 1990, Weathers tried persuading his friend and co-defendant, James Small, to cooperate with federal authorities in exchange for his help in the Blow investigation. In exchange, Weathers said he could get Small a sentence reduction - and, like Weathers, some time alone for sex in the FBI offices.
``He told me the FBI agents were all right,'' Small said in October in an interview at the Federal Correctional Institute in Petersburg, where he is serving a seven-year sentence for drug possession.
So Weathers began making deals. In March 1990, he called fellow drug dealer Garry Copeland from federal offices and asked him to deal some cocaine for him. The profits would be used to support Weathers and his wife, he said. Copeland and William Kenneth Banks were arrested in the sting.
During the same period, Weathers asked the FBI for time alone with his wife, records show. During Pointer's May 1991 trial, Watters described how Weathers asked for favors.
``We picked him up from jail and brought him back to the FBI office,'' Watters testified. ``When he found out that we would not permit his girlfriend to be with him alone after the interview, he decided he had nothing more to say.''
But according to the affidavit of Weathers' wife, conjugal visits took place in May and June of 1990. She was brought to FBI offices on Granby Street ``with the knowledge of and consent of the agents,'' she said. ``During four to six of those visits, while alone in an office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (Cynlithia) and (Gary Weathers) had sexual intercourse. . . . (Gary Weathers) telephoned her on each occasion to request her visit and assured her that their activity within the visit was condoned.''
Eight or nine months later, Cynlithia Weathers had twins. She declined to be interviewed.
Gary Weathers, who has been moved from Petersburg to the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Ind., has also refused interviews. MEMO: THE DEFENDANTS
In records filed in U.S. District Court, drug supplier Gary Weathers
told authorities he gave testimony or information that resulted in the
drug convictions of 11 men.
The charges against them included conspiracy to distribute drugs,
possession of drugs with intent to distribute, interstate transportation
in aid of racketeering, and threats against witnesses. Wednesday,
federal authorities acknowledged that Weathers was allowed sexual favors
for his cooperation.
At least seven men convicted of drug deals have received or will
receive new sentencing hearings or new trials because of Weathers'
tainted testimony. Sentences for Marvin Pointer and Tyrone Staton were
reduced Wednesday. The other five are:
Samuel ``Cadillac Sam'' Collins Jr., 47, of Philadelphia, sentenced
to life. Collins was called one of the largest drug suppliers on the
East Coast.
Garry ``Fat Garry'' Copeland, 36, of Chesapeake, sentenced to life.
Copeland, called Collins' first lieutenant, claimed that fears for his
and his family's lives kept him dealing drugs long after he wanted out
of the business.
Fernando Blow, 35, of Portsmouth, sentenced to life. Blow called
himself ``the dumbest thing that ever sold dope'' and swore he sold only
cocaine, never heroin or crack.
Bruce Elliott Boone Sr., 45, of Chesapeake, sentenced to life. A
federal judge called Boone and Blow two of the biggest drug dealers in
Portsmouth, but Boone argued that the evidence against him came from
dealers who would sell their mothers for a deal from the government.
William Kenneth Banks, 37, of Norfolk, sentenced to 25 years.
(Ages given were at the time of arrest).
CHRONOLOGY OF THE CASE
These are events leading to the resentencing Wednesday of two
convicted drug dealers because of suppressed evidence and tainted
testimony:
July 31, 1989: Gary Weathers is arrested by a task force of FBI, Drug
Enforcement Administration and local narcotics agents.
Nov. 6, 1989: Weathers pleads guilty in federal court to dealing
drugs. Part of his plea agreement is that he will cooperate with
authorities.
January or February 1990: Weathers tells cellmate Quincy W. Davis
that he would ``help set anyone up for crimes not committed or lie
against anyone, in order to get out'' of prison, Davis says in an
affidavit.
Feb. 1, 1990: Weathers is sentenced to 14 years without parole.
March 1990: Weathers is transferred from federal prison in Petersburg
to Norfolk. He calls Tyrone Staton in a ``reverse sting'' and sets up a
drug deal with Staton. Later calls by Weathers help net two other
defendants - Garry Copeland and William K. Banks.
May and June 1990: Cynlithia Weathers visits her husband six times in
FBI offices and has sex with him four of those times, she says in an
affidavit. During one of those visits, she becomes pregnant with twins.
Gary Weathers' girlfriend also visits during this time, and they have
sex.
June 22, 1990: Special Agent James Watters of the FBI interviews
Weathers during a debriefing in the FBI offices. Although Weathers would
later contradict this in court, he says during the debriefing that
Marvin A. Pointer was his ``first lieutenant'' in drug sales.
Sept. 27, 1990: Pointer and 13 others are charged with conspiracy to
distribute heroin and cocaine from Jan. 1, 1984, to September 1990.
Nov. 7, 1990: The court vacates Weathers' 14-year sentence ``because
of the defendant's cooperation in the investigation of large-scale drug
dealing'' resulting in the arrest of 11 people, court records say. All
defendants are either convicted in federal court or plead guilty and
receive sentences ranging from three years to life without parole.
Jan. 23, 1991: Weathers' 14-year sentence is reduced to 10 years, 10
months.
Feb. 17, 1991: Cynlithia Weathers gives birth to the twins at
Portsmouth General Hospital. The birth certificate lists Gary Weathers
as the father.
Feb. 23, 1991: Weathers asks U.S. District Judge John MacKenzie for
more time off his sentence. He writes that the FBI let him see his wife
``five or six times because I was doing so well help(ing) them . . .
they let me get my wife pregnant'' with twins.
May 1991: Pointer is convicted. During the trial, Pointer's lawyer
accuses Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles D. Griffith Jr. of using
``perjured testimony or false evidence.'' Watters reads from the
transcript of Weathers' Feb. 1990 sentencing, in which he says Weathers
requested time alone with his girlfriend. Watters says the request was
not granted. But records filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday
acknowledge that Watters knew of trysts before this trial.
Sept. 13, 1991: Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. sentences Pointer to life
without parole. Six days later, he sentences Tyrone Staton to 30 years.
February 1994: Pointer writes the U.S. Justice Department's Office of
Professional Responsibility, accusing Griffith, Watters and a state
police officer of misconduct for their alleged roles in arranging
Weathers' trysts.
September 1994: Pointer files a motion to set aside his sentence. He
alleges that federal authorities made secret deals with Weathers,
violating his constitutional right to a fair trial.
Jan. 11, 1995: Judge Clarke, during a resentencing hearing, reduces
Pointer's sentence from life to 12 1/2 years and Staton's sentence from
30 years to 12 years. As part of the plea agreement, Pointer and Staton
agree to file no more motions in the ``Gary Weathers matter,'' in
Clarke's words.
ILLUSTRATION: Color drawing of Marvin A. Pointer (right) and Tyrone Staton
(left)
KEYWORDS: SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE REDUCED SENTENCE by CNB