THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140377
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
The practice by federal agents of allowing jailed informants sexual visits in Norfolk federal offices in exchange for information against drug suspects was more widespread than previously revealed, testimony showed Tuesday.
The newest trysts were revealed during the drug conspiracy trial of four men charged with selling heroin and crack cocaine in Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Norfolk from 1988 to 1995. Larry Blount, a witness against the four, testified he was allowed several conjugal visits with his wife in 1991 in the same downtown U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration offices where he was being debriefed by federal agents.
Blount is the second informant within a year to admit in testimony and interviews that federal agents arranged conjugal visits as rewards for information given by drug informants.
Last year, convicted drug dealer Gary Weathers told a reporter that in May and June 1990, he received conjugal visits in the DEA offices while members of a regional drug task force - composed of agents of the FBI, DEA, state police and Portsmouth Police Department - either took lunch or looked the other way. In exchange for his help, Weathers was allowed several lunchtime visits with his wife and at least one visit with his girlfriend. Weathers and his wife conceived twins during one of the visits.
Weathers' information was central to a two-year probe into a Portsmouth heroin ring that resulted in the convictions of about 15 dealers, five of whom were sentenced to life without parole. But because the trysts were not revealed to defense attorneys during the trial, seven of those men last year received dramatically reduced sentences or now await new hearings in federal court.
The difference between Blount's testimony on Tuesday and Weathers' admissions last year was that Blount's tale was told to the jury by federal prosecutor Fernando Groene. Thus, the only thing to be affected are jurors' opinions of Blount's credibility.
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 visits traded for testimony.
When Blount was arrested for heroin distribution in August 1990, Portsmouth agents mistakenly thought he sold drugs for Linwood Taylor, a co-defendant in the same case involving Gary Weathers. Blount was jailed, and later pleaded guilty to reduced drug charges in federal court.
Blount testified Tuesday that his wife was brought to a ``secluded'' DEA office several times in 1991. FBI and DEA agents, who set up the meetings, waited ``in the next room'' until the lunchtime visits concluded, he said. The door was kept closed and no one ever interrupted.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI would not comment Tuesday on whether other drug informants would make their trysts public in future cases. Norfolk federal prosecutor Mike Smythers said the trysts ``were not a common practice,'' but added that a federal investigation is continuing.
But during a two-hour interview in February 1995, Weathers said he was told the practice was common. When Weathers started asking police for conjugal visits, he said he was told by an unidentified Portsmouth agent: ``I don't see no problem. . . we've let other people do that in other investigations.''
Blount gave few other details Tuesday about his trysts, and federal authorities would not comment. But court papers filed in late December in the case of Samuel Collins Jr., sentenced to life in prison because of Weathers' testimony but now seeking a new trial, reveal the trysts were well known among federal agents.
Weathers' conjugal visits were brought to light in 1994 by Marvin Pointer, a co-defendant of Collins'. In summer and fall 1994, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility investigated Pointer's allegations. The OPR's report - which had never been made public - was quoted liberally in Collins' plea for a new trial.
According to the report, FBI agent James Watters and task force members Richard McGoldrick and H.C. Davis arranged for the visits. Weathers' girlfriend, Denise Brown, said the visits lasted about an hour and that ``Watters would always knock and then hesitate before opening the door.''
There was apparently disagreement between the agents about the practice, the report shows. Watters told investigators that he returned from lunch on two occasions to learn that Weathers was alone with a woman in the DEA interview room. McGoldrick indicated ``he was left alone by the other two agents to `watch' Weathers and that he `watched' Weathers by allowing him to visit with his `lunch partners' behind closed doors,'' the report said. Davis said the three disagreed on security, but allowed the visits to continue.
The OPR report also addressed the role of then-federal prosecutor Charles D. Griffith Jr., now Norfolk commonwealth's attorney, whose ultimate responsibility was to inform the defense of the visits.
Last year, Weathers said he thought Griffith knew of the visits: ``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,' '' he said. ``I just smiled.''
Watters also told Justice investigators that he thought Griffith was aware of the visits, but that he had ``no distinct recollection of specifically advising Griffith,'' the report said.
Griffith has said he knew nothing of the trysts and would not have condoned them. ``We don't make deals like that,'' he said. by CNB