THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 221 lines
It seemed a fair request to convicted drug supplier Gary Weathers: he'd done so much for the federal task force investigating a major heroin ring in Portsmouth - informing on old friends, springing traps on others. Why couldn't the feds do something for him?
How about some time alone with his wife and girlfriend, he asked. He'd been in prison too long without their comfort. How could that hurt?
At first, his pleas fell on deaf ears. The FBI agent in charge of the task force, Special Agent James L. Watters, was completely ``by the book,'' Weathers said during a recent prison interview. ``Whatever else you could say about him, he wasn't doin' nothing to ruin his case.''
But even in law enforcement, a squeaky wheel gets the grease. Especially if the squeak comes from an investigation's main informant.
In a region saturated with drug cases, this was not your run-of-the-mill investigation. When a federal judge in 1991 slammed the gavel on the final hearing, the task force - composed of agents of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, state police and Portsmouth Police Department - had put an end to a $20 million drug ring accounting for most of the heroin sales in Hampton Roads from 1984 to 1990.
The two-year probe resulted in the convictions of about 15 dealers; five were sentenced to life without parole. The highly praised task force - which would go on to crack drug rings in the Navy, in the neighborhood surrounding Norfolk State University and most recently an alleged $122.8 million, multistate drug-and-murder ring on the Peninsula - had scored another coup.
What wasn't revealed in court was that other agents let Weathers play while Watters was away. In May and June 1990, Weathers got his conjugal visits, secretly given to him in federal offices while task force members took lunch breaks or looked the other way, he said early last month during an interview at the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis.
In exchange for his help, Weathers was allowed several lunchtime visits with his wife, Cynlithia - during which twins were conceived - and at least one conjugal visit with his girlfriend.
The trysts were not revealed to defense attorneys during the trial, a constitutional violation. Since a 1963 Supreme Court decision, prosecutors have been required to disclose any favorable evidence about defendants. This includes information undermining the credibility of government witnesses - such as sexual favors traded for testimony.
Now, seven of those men convicted in the Portsmouth heroin ring have received dramatically reduced sentences or await new sentencing hearings or trials in U.S. District Court. It was one of at least three federal drug cases in the nation last year in which accusations of such secret deals were confirmed.
All were cases that would not have been possible without the aid of informants like Weathers. In Atlanta, at least two imprisoned witnesses were allowed conjugal visits - or ``picnics'' - in the federal courthouse. In Chicago, the convictions of 54 members of the murderous El Rukn drug gang were overturned or remanded after investigators found that informants weregiven alcohol, drugs and sex in federal offices in exchange for testimony.
If anything, the botched cases illustrate a flaw in the strategy federal authorities have adopted since the war on drugs escalated in the late 1980s. During that time, prosecutors focused on bringing down entire criminal organizations rather than simply targeting individuals. But this would prove impossible without help from the inside, from former gang members willing to ``snitch'' on their friends.
Yet, sometimes, the authorities and their informants grew too close, court records show. It was a closeness that undermined a critical distance between lawmen and the lawless, blurring the lines, sabotaging the case from within.
In the Portsmouth investigation, the lines were blurred from Day 1. Allegations by drug dealers of an undercover officer's sexual improprieties almost sank the case in 1988. This year, it was the disclosure of unreported sexual favors that tarnished the task force's record.
Although Weathers was the government's main informant against the Portsmouth gang, he wasn't the only one, according to court records and interviews.
Antonio Blow, the gang's reputed leader, and the first to be arrested, reportedly turned in Weathers - his supplier - to avoid a life sentence. Gang member Tyrone Staton gave information about others to avoid life in prison. Darren Brown participated in a sting that netted dealer Garry Copeland, released on bond after naming 18 other dealers and promising to deliver Sam Collins, tagged by prosecutors as a major East Coast supplier. But Copeland got life after reneging on that promise.
All of these deals were made public, however, and released to defense attorneys before the trials.
Not so with Weathers. By the time he got his conjugal visits, Weathers was in good standing with the task force. He already had turned information on 11 gang members, including Marvin Pointer, his boyhood friend who later brought the secret deal to light. Weathers helped bag Copeland, Staton and William K. Banks that March after setting up phony drug buys.
Weathers had been arrested in July 1989 in a Virginia Beach motel. Agents seized about 25 ounces of cocaine, two handguns, an AK-47, a camouflaged flak jacket and $19,000. In November 1989, he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities. In February 1990, he was sentenced to 14 years.
Court records show that, almost from the first, Weathers started asking Watters for time alone with his wife or girlfriend.
Although FBI officials stand firm behind Watters, they have declined to release many details. A slim, balding man whom one friend said ``looks more like an accountant than your picture of an FBI agent,'' he is also an enigma.
Trained as a lawyer, he served as the Norfolk FBI's spokesman during the John Walker spy case of the mid-1980s. Portsmouth officers said they were told by other agents that Watters was a supervisor elsewhere before relocating here as an agent. After the Portsmouth case, he headed the task force's successful campaign against the drug gang terrorizing the neighborhood around NSU.
Supporters call Watters ``intelligent,'' ``a straight arrow,'' ``a family man.'' Detractors - mostly Portsmouth officers targeted by the task force's unsuccessful probe into police corruption - said the veteran agent abused his power while conducting a ``witch hunt'' for a dirty cop. FBI officials said Watters' decisions were always supervised by the court or the FBI.
If anything, the phrase ``by the book'' surfaces again and again with Watters. This is important, since the government's only response to the secret deal mentions Watters alone by name. The implication has been that he was the prime mover in setting up the deal, then in concealing it from authorities.
``It . . . 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,'' court records say. Federal officials have refused to go into further detail, claiming an investigation is continuing.
Yet according to Weathers, none of this is wholly true. During a two-hour interview in early February, Weathers said the conjugal visits were arranged by a Portsmouth officer assigned to the task force. DEA agents worked outside the tiny office where his wife or girlfriend brought him lunch. Weathers said he believes Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Charles D. Griffith Jr. - then the case's federal prosecutor - knew about the sex before the trials. No federal agents have interviewed him since the deals became public, he said.
``They're playing a game with the truth, protecting each other,'' he said. ``The truth ain't never gonna come out. You wait and see.''
In court, the truth is elusive, often shackled by legal procedure. During Pointer's May 1991 trial, Watters came close to admitting the conjugal visits while describing how Weathers asked for favors. By that trial, Weathers had already had his conjugal visits; according to court records, Watters and other officials knew. During cross-examination by Pointer's lawyer, Watters was asked to read from transcripts of a hearing that took place before the sex. The transcripts were entered as evidence to cast doubt on Weathers' credibility.
``We picked him (Weathers) up from jail and brought him back to the FBI office'' during late 1989 or early 1990, before the conjugal visits occurred, Watters read. ``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.''
The lawyer failed to ask, however, whether Weathers continued to ask for sex and whether it was granted. If he had, Watters would have been compelled to tell the truth or commit perjury. But since he was not asked, Watters did not volunteer the truth.
``Should he have volunteered it?'' said Larry E. Torrence, special agent in charge of the Norfolk FBI office. ``That's an interesting question . . . but I don't think he was required. That's the type of information that is supposed to be disclosed by the government's attorney to the defense attorney. . . . That would be putting a cop or agent in an untenable position on the stand.''
Griffith has said he knew nothing of the trysts and would not have condoned them. ``We don't make deals like that,'' he said.
But Weathers thinks otherwise. ``I think Watters, or somebody, did tell Griffith,'' Weathers said. ``One time before (Pointer's) trial, I was going to be debriefed when Griffith came up and said, `I heard you were going to be a father again.' I just smiled.
``I didn't tell him about the twins,'' Weathers said. ``But somebody did. And he knew I'd been in custody all that time.''
FBI officials would not comment other than to say they believe Watters did nothing wrong. Surprisingly, Weathers supports the FBI.
``Watters would never have condoned something like this,'' Weathers said. ``It wasn't planned - it just happened.''
According to Weathers, he approached a Portsmouth narcotics officer assigned to the task force after his overtures to Watters failed. Weathers would not give the officer's name, but interviews show two Portsmouth officers had the assignment in quick succession. One officer has left the force and moved to the western part of the state. The other is now assigned to the uniform patrol.
``I said to the Portsmouth cop, `After all I've done for you guys, I'm just trying to see my girl.' The Portsmouth cop said, `I don't see no problem . . . we've let other people do that in other investigations. . . . But you know Watters - he's not going to let you do nothing like that.' ''
So an unstated agreement was reached, Weathers said. While other agents went to lunch, Weathers' wife brought lunch to him as he waited in a small room in DEA offices in the Federal Building on Granby Street. ``The Portsmouth cop came and pulled the door closed,'' he remembered. ``It stayed closed for 20 to 25 minutes. There wasn't much inside - a desk, a chair, a telephone. Nobody bothered us. Other agents worked at their desks outside the door.''
Weathers said the visits with his wife occurred ``three or four times.'' Once, when his girlfriend was brought up, she, too, was introduced as Weathers' wife, ``but the agents knew who she was,'' Weathers said.
The affidavit of Weathers' wife Cynlithia differed slightly. She was brought to federal offices ``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 has declined to be interviewed. At first, Gary Weathers also declined.
But now, the affair has become public and he wants to set the record straight, he said. Although the Justice Department has said it is investigating, Weathers said neither he nor his wife has been interviewed.
``Once, last year, a federal agent called up wanting to talk while I was in'' federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind., Weathers said. ``I said no way. No one's talked to me about it except'' Pointer's lawyer, James Broccoletti, and a reporter.
Weathers now wants to talk, he said, because his wife is scared someone might take revenge against her or the twins for his actions.
``Anything I did, I'm sorry, but my wife and kids shouldn't be held accountable,'' Weathers said. ``When I got arrested, the prosecutor told me that when I came to trial they'd get me life without parole unless I turned in my friends. Marvin Pointer, Sam Collins, Bruce Boone - those guys were my friends. But I had to save my life.''
Others convicted in the case seem to have come to terms with Weathers' role.
``I was mad, real mad at Gary at first,'' said Pointer. ``But you get in federal prison and you learn real quick, the feds ain't playing fair. They're not interested in the truth. They're interested in building their case . . . You get in this system and you look out for yourself. You're on your own.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lynn Waltz contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
[Color Photo]
Gary Weathers, now at the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis,
says he had conjugal visits in federal offices in Norfolk in 1990
while drug task force members took lunch breaks or looked the other
way.
Gary Weathers had conjungal visits with his wife and girlfriend at
the Federal Building in Norfolk.
by CNB