DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997                TAG: 9703280551

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  101 lines

AGENTS ALLEGEDLY RAN BAWDY HOUSE, JUDGE SAYS

Agents in a federal sex-for-testimony scandal may have broken state laws, a judge in the case wrote, and have been investigated in connection with the possible violation of federal laws.

At the least, the two agents - who permitted a jailed witness to have sex with his wife and girlfriend in the local DEA office - allegedly operated a bawdy house, or brothel, in the downtown Federal Building, Judge Tommy Miller wrote.

Miller also wrote that the agents may have aided and abetted fornication and adultery when the witness had sex with his girlfriend.

``These law-enforcement agents are fortunate because each of these offenses is a misdemeanor for which the statute of limitations is one year,'' Miller wrote in a recent finding in the case.

A Department of Justice report expected within weeks could offer a range of possibilities. The most serious would be recommendations that the agents be charged with violations of federal laws. Another would be a finding of fact with recommendations for appropriate administrative penalties against the agents. A third would be that all involved would be exonerated.

Larry Torrence, head of the local FBI office, said that he has, ``No knowledge of any criminal misconduct by Agent Jim Watters.'' Torrence also said he was not aware of any investigation of criminal misconducts by Watters.

The agents' misconduct, which occurred in 1990, included not telling defense attorneys in a drug case about the sexual liaison as required by law. As a result, three defendants - including some of Portsmouth's biggest drug dealers from the 1980s - have been released from prison. One was released Tuesday after serving six years of a life sentence without parole. The sentences of four others have been substantially reduced. All were part of a gang that distributed about $20 million in heroin from 1984 to 1989.

After the misconduct came to light in 1994, the Office of Professional Responsibility with the Justice Department began investigating. The investigation was completed last year and the final report has been completed, awaiting a final review, a Justice Department spokesman said Thursday.

The investigation has included interviews with all key people involved, including prosecutors and agents, a review of the events and whether any laws were broken. A grand jury was convened in April 1995 in which the key witness, Gary Weathers, who was granted the sexual liaisons, was questioned by prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office.

Weathers told the grand jury about the visits with his wife and girlfriend, which occurred when Weathers was taken from jail to the DEA office for debriefing. Details in court papers, stemming from a DEA internal investigation, show that the women visited Weathers eight times and had relations six times. After his wife became pregnant with twins, the liaisons became public.

Weathers also testified that the prosecutor, Chuck Griffith, who is now Norfolk's commonwealth's attorney, told him he had heard that Weathers was going to be a father, implying that Griffith must have known about the liaisons. Griffith said he did not know and was never informed by the agents. James Watters, the FBI agent, told investigators he believed Griffith knew but did not tell him.

Griffith said he will welcome the Justice Department report because it will remove any remaining questions about his role.

``There's no question, absolutely no question, that I'm not a target of any OPR investigation,'' Griffith said. ``They all agree I had no knowledge. There's never been an issue whether I knew. . . . It would be better if the report came out and completely exonerated me.''

Griffith said the misconduct by the agents showed they ``wanted the case so badly they were willing to do something that is not appropriate for law enforcement.''

Griffith said the sexual favors were unnecessary because the key witness got a reduced sentence for cooperating and would have cooperated anyway.

The other agent was Richard McGoldrick of the DEA. Watters remains an active-duty agent in Norfolk, and McGoldrick has been transferred to Chicago. Citing the ongoing investigation, the DEA would not answer questions about McGoldrick's role in Chicago.

Among the legal issues reviewed by the Office of Professional Responsibility would be whether the agents broke federal laws, such as perjury, aiding perjury, contempt of court or obstruction of justice. If the Office of Professional Responsibility finds that federal laws have been broken, the office usually refers the matter to the Office of Public Integrity for further investigation and/or prosecution.

Miller raised the spectre of perjury by the key witness, who testified that the agents had not let Weathers see his wife and girlfriend, though he had repeatedly asked. Because Watters was sitting at the prosecution table during the testimony and did not tell the judge the testimony was perjured, the judge wrote, he allowed false testimony to be used by the jurors in their considerations.

``Due process is violated not only when the prosecution knowingly used perjured testimony to gain a conviction,'' Miller wrote, ``but also when evidence is used which the government knows creates a false impression. . . . This includes situations where the government merely allows false testimony to pass uncorrected.''

Not only did Watters allow false testimony to pass uncorrected, Miller wrote, he also did not correct the judge when the judge informed the jury that the key witness had not been granted the sexual encounters.

Causing someone else to commit perjury is a federal crime, but there is no evidence in the public record that indicates that the two agents instructed Weathers to lie on the stand about the sexual encounters. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Agents allegedly ran bawdy house, judge says

Judge Tommy Miller also says two agents may have aided and abetted

fornication and adultery in a sex-for-testimony scandal involving

Portsmouth drug dealers. KEYWORDS: SEX FOR TESTIMONY DEA SCANDAL

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