Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT) Copyright: 2000 The Billings Gazette Contact: P.O. Box 36300, Billings, MT 59101-6300 Fax: 406-657-1208 Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/ Author: Dan Burkhart Of The Gazette Staff SET-UP ALLEGED Drug Charge Follows Harassment Settlement (Bridger) - A woman who settled a sexual harassment case against the mayor and city last week was charged with one count of felony criminal distribution of dangerous drugs this week, according to information filed in Montana 22nd Judicial District Court. Lagina Carter, 37, is accused of giving about 3 grams of marijuana to an undercover agent working for the Bridger Police Department last October. Carter allegedly agreed to sell more marijuana to the undercover agent later, according to Carbon County Attorney Tony Kendall. The law regards selling, bartering, exchanging, offering to sell or giving away any dangerous drug under the same criminal statute, according to Kendall. Carter was served with a summons for arraignment Feb. 22, but was not arrested, according to Kendall. "I don't consider her a flight risk," Kendall said. Carter, who was an employee with Bridger's public works department until January, filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with the state Human Rights Bureau in May 1999. The complaint alleged that then-Mayor Bob Krall continually subjected her to unwanted sexual advances and then threatened her job if she pursued her complaint. After months of negotiations and an investigation by the state Human Rights Bureau, the case was settled Feb. 1 when the city agreed to pay Carter $40,000. The settlement was approved by the Human Rights Bureau, according to Carter's attorney, John Yoder of Billings. But while Carter's harassment case was being investigated, Bridger police were investigating Carter. Tipped by an 18-year-old Bridger man, Brandon Black, who was applying for a position with the Bridger Police Department, an undercover operation began with Black as an informant, according to the affidavit field by Kendall. The investigation began after Carter allegedly approached Black the day his application was being considered by the city council and "offered to pay him $500 a month to keep secret her marijuana sales," the affidavit states. Black informed Bridger Police Officer Tom Webb of the encounter with Carter and the city police decided to conduct an undercover investigation, tape recording Black's conversations with Carter, according to Kendall. On Oct. 29, Black informed Bridger Police Chief Lynn Halvorsen that Carter agreed to sell him marijuana. The next night Black met Carter at her house in Bridger, where she gave him approximately 3.1 grams "to tide him over," according to the affidavit. She promised to sell him a quarter-ounce (about 7 grams) later that evening. No subsequent transactions took place, Kendall said. If convicted, Carter faces a term of not less than one year or more than life or a fine not to exceed $50,000 or both, according to Kendall. Carter told The Gazette she thinks the investigation was an effort to "set me up" and denied she engaged in drug sales. "This whole thing was them trying to get me because I filed that complaint," she said. "They tried to bust me for a DUI and that didn't work so they tried this. I decided to play along hoping it would all backfire in their faces," she said. Carter said Black "pestered me about selling him some pot and I wouldn't do it." She said she hoped the police would search her car, her house and her person because "they'd find nothing and look dumb." "I knew what he was doing and I thought I'd play along just to get even," she said. Carter acknowledged she gave Black "some pot, I guess. I didn't sell it. It wasn't even mine. I thought 'OK, now let's see where this goes,' thinking they'd look silly when they came searching and found out it was all a joke." Carter said Officer Tom Webb was the same officer who stopped her on suspicion of drunken driving earlier that summer. She said that after giving her a sobriety and breath test he made her go to Red Lodge, where the tests were repeated. "After all that, I wasn't guilty. He didn't charge me and he had to drive me home. He was just looking for anything he could get me on. Heck, I said I'd take whatever test they wanted to give me, even a urine test to show I didn't use pot." Carter said Webb was also the officer who witnessed one of the incidents with Krall but denied it when she asked him to report it. She said he was present the day "Krall put his hands down my pants as I was learning to operate the backhoe. But he wouldn't do anything. He said he didn't see anything." Webb's account later was disputed by a Bridger justice of the peace who told the state investigator she heard Webb discuss the incident. "He (Webb) was out to get me," Carter said. "This is just more of the same." Neither Halvorsen nor Webb returned phone calls to discuss the case, but Kendall said the filing of charges was not related to the harassment issue in Bridger. "I filed when the investigation was complete and I had the information I needed," he said. "I wasn't involved in the other issue." Yoder said he didn't have enough information to comment on the drug charge against his client, but he said it would not alter the facts or the settlement in the harassment case. "The evidence supported my client's version of what happened," he said. "As far as the settlement, the city signed it, the Human Rights Bureau approved it Feb. 3 and the check has been cut and is in the mail." Yoder said the drug charge shouldn't bear on Carter's truthfulness on the harassment matter. "We don't have all the facts," he said. "She's only been accused at this point, not convicted." - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto