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Findings and Recommendations 2 findings
F1
(Quoting from Chief Judge Emeritus, Lawrence K. Karlton, United States District Court, in his order on motion to dismiss based on outrageous government conduct, U.S. vs. Spruth, Spruth and Rowley, Order dated May 19, 1998.) "It must be emphasized from the outset that this is not a case in which the government's conduct was such as to represent 'no danger of distribution.1 On the contrary, as much as a hundred thousand doses of methamphetamine were distributed. Nor is this a case in which law enforcement did not Violate any federal statute or rule or commit any crime in infiltrating the defendant's drug enterprise'. On the contrary, here the agents, at a minimum, aided and abetted the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine, and given the fact that the agents received money rather than drugs, could properly be viewed as having conspired to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, both being federal crimes. Moreover, it is not without significance that almost every aspect of the BNE's reversal policy designed to protect the public was treated with disdain." "In this court's view the agents' loss of perspective led to outrageous behavior." "It seems certain that the denial of the defendants' motion will simply send the wrong message to law enforcement. These law enforcement officers have demonstrated beyond peradventure of a doubt that they are focused exclusively on "the bottom line," and the bottom line in this proceeding is that the irresponsible behavior of these officers will have no consequences. It is the height of naiveté, to believe that the court's expression of concern will affect their conduct in any way."
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The Trinity County Board of Supervisors should adopt an ordinance making the use of "reverse sting" narcotic investigation illegal in Trinity County unless local law enforcement officials are first informed and also assured that illegal drugs will not be distributed to the public. If Trinity County has no authority to adopt such an ordinance controlling the practice of reverse stings in this county, perhaps an ordinance mandating our local law enforcement be notified prior to a sting and include an assurance the methamphetamine will not be distributed to the public.
F2
The testimony within the trial transcripts and evidence presented raised a question whether monetary gain versus recovery of the methamphetamine produced became a priority during the reverse sting operations. One financial aspect was not fully addressed and remains an open question: What happened to the approximately $2.6 million revenue from the street sale of 130,000 + doses of methamphetamine? And what happened to the BNE/SINTF profit gained by the sale or barter of 102 and 1/2 pounds of ephedrine @ $1,000 per pound or its equivalent, and the pseudoephedrine sold to Molko?
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
This should be investigated. The lab and the "bust" took place in Trinity County. In April of 2000, The U.S. District Court released seized funds that were generated in this county. Perhaps the Board of Supervisors should have the authority to adopt an ordinance to have some control over "reverse stings" that occur in Trinity County. CONCLUSION: Case law defines the Grand Jury as the "conscience of society." Acting in that capacity, this Grand Jury finds the illegal conduct of the officers/ officials in the 1995 and 1997 reverse stings chronicled in this complaint, to be completely shocking to the conscience of society. In each of these reverse stings preventable criminal enterprises were established and funded because the government provided precursor chemicals otherwise not easily available. The end result was that the public was poisoned with over 100,000 doses of methamphetamine, as well as toxic waste from the manufacturing process. Permitting such conduct merely to gather evidence and convict a few drug manufacturers is unthinkable. This Grand Jury finds that in the reverse stings targeting Spruth, Spruth, Rowley and Molko the officers/officials conduct was so excessive, flagrant and offensive as to violate constitutional limits and a universal sense of justice. Every effort of this Grand Jury, as well as the efforts of the 2003-2004 Grand Jury to return a true bill of indictment in this investigation have been vigorously opposed by law enforcement and the government powers that bE, (including, but not limited to, the Attorney General). Not withstanding the monumental efforts to resolve this very serious complaint, we have run the gamut of all legal options and methods in an effort to prosecute this issue only to have ALL doors closed. The 2004-2005 Grand Jury spent hundreds of hours researching the court documents and have come to the same conclusion as the 2003-2004 Grand Jury. We feel these deplorable actions must be stopped. We have gone to great lengths and a tremendous amount of work, to no avail. The response to our interview with the District Attorney was, "there were no criminal acts committed by the BNE agents in the reverse sting operations involving the Spruth brothers". The response from Bill Lockyer, State Attorney General, was that the previous Attorney General, Dan Lungren determined that "the agents had acted appropriately and concluded that their actions did not violate the law". The Grand Jury also wrote to California Assemblywoman, Patty Berg and California Senator, Diane Feinstein, seeking their advice. However, the Grand Jury was not awarded the courtesy of a reply from either Ms. Berg or Ms. Feinstein. This is a very frustrating end to two years of work by both the 2003-2004 and the 2004- 2005 Grand Jury. ENTITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION RESPOND TO Trinity County 1,2 1,2 60 days District Attorney County Counsel 1,2 1,2 60 days Trinity County 1,2 1,2 60 days Sheriffs Office Trinity County Board 1,2 1,2 90 days of Supervisors
Conclusions 1
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CL1 Page 5Case law defines the Grand Jury as the "conscience of society." Acting in that capacity, this Grand Jury finds the illegal conduct of the officers/ officials in the 1995 and 1997 reverse stings chronicled in this complaint, to be completely shocking to the conscience of society. In each of these reverse stings preventable criminal enterprises were established and funded because the government provided precursor chemicals otherwise not easily available. The end result was that the public was poisoned with over 100,000 doses of methamphetamine, as well as toxic waste from the manufacturing process. Permitting such conduct merely to gather evidence and convict a few drug manufacturers is unthinkable. This Grand Jury finds that in the reverse stings targeting Spruth, Spruth, Rowley and Molko the officers/officials conduct was so excessive, flagrant and offensive as to violate constitutional limits and a universal sense of justice. Every effort of this Grand Jury, as well as the efforts of the 2003-2004 Grand Jury to return a true bill of indictment in this investigation have been vigorously opposed by law enforcement and the government powers that bE, (including, but not limited to, the Attorney General). Not withstanding the monumental efforts to resolve this very serious complaint, we have run the gamut of all legal options and methods in an effort to prosecute this issue only to have ALL doors closed. The 2004-2005 Grand Jury spent hundreds of hours researching the court documents and have come to the same conclusion as the 2003-2004 Grand Jury. We feel these deplorable actions must be stopped. We have gone to great lengths and a tremendous amount of work, to no avail. The response to our interview with the District Attorney was, "there were no criminal acts committed by the BNE agents in the reverse sting operations involving the Spruth brothers". The response from Bill Lockyer, State Attorney General, was that the previous Attorney General, Dan Lungren determined that "the agents had acted appropriately and concluded that their actions did not violate the law". The Grand Jury also wrote to California Assemblywoman, Patty Berg and California Senator, Diane Feinstein, seeking their advice. However, the Grand Jury was not awarded the courtesy of a reply from either Ms. Berg or Ms. Feinstein. This is a very frustrating end to two years of work by both the 2003-2004 and the 2004- 2005 Grand Jury. ENTITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION RESPOND TO Trinity County 1,2 1,2 60 days District Attorney County Counsel 1,2 1,2 60 days Trinity County 1,2 1,2 60 days Sheriffs Office Trinity County Board 1,2 1,2 90 days of Supervisors
No Responses Found 4
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
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