Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2002
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2002 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Brett Barrouquere

ATTORNEY: FBI 'MANUFACTURED' CRIME

The federal government "manufactured" a crack cocaine trafficking crime 
involving three former West Baton Rouge Jail guards, a defense attorney for 
one of the men said Tuesday. The first time any of the three men possessed 
crack cocaine was when an FBI agent handed it to Gerald Robertson Jr. on 
May 28, said Frank Saia, the attorney for former guard Warren Terrell Chapman.

"There's no proof except for the sting, and the government manufactured 
that crime," Saia said during a bail hearing in U.S. District Court in 
Baton Rouge.

Robertson, 25, of 4164 Mulatto Bend Road; Chapman, 7222 S. River Road, 
Addis; and Elliott Jermaine McQuillan, 21, 6956 U.S. 190, each were ordered 
released Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Docia Dalby on a $20,000 bond.

They were arrested May 28 in Port Allen after being accused of taking 
bribes from inmates in exchange for drugs, cell phones and food.

All three are charged with receipt of a bribe by a public official, 
possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and possession of a 
firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking offense.

Robertson and McQuillan are also charged with conspiracy to distribute and 
possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.

Saia said the FBI brought crack cocaine to the sting because the drug 
carries a longer prison sentence than marijuana, which several informants 
accused the men of smuggling into the jail. "That's sentence entrapment," 
Saia said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rene Salomon said the three men knew what they were 
doing in the alleged smuggling operation.

Robertson and McQuillan were arrested together. Salomon said McQuillan 
served as a lookout while Robertson took the bribe money and drugs from the 
FBI.

After being arrested, each admitted to smuggling contraband items into the 
jail, Salomon said. Robertson was the most explicit of the group, Salomon 
said. "He said, 'I came out here to basically protect Mr. Robertson, and I 
knew a drug deal was going down,'" Salomon said.

Salomon said the investigation started in December when Troy Lee Cummings, 
a federal inmate being held in the jail awaiting sentencing on 
drug-trafficking charges, told a federal investigator that he could not 
pass a drug test.

The FBI began working with several federal inmates being held in the West 
Baton Rouge Parish Jail, said Saia and Angela Lockett, an attorney 
representing McQuillan.

"The informants that said this only have something to gain," Lockett said.
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