Pubdate: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2005 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: http://www.stltoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418 Author: Peter Shinkle Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) CROOKS COVET JUSTICE DATABASES ST. LOUIS -- Adrian Minnis ran a heroin distribution ring that was violent and tightly knit, making it difficult for informers to penetrate it, federal authorities say. The gang also had a secret weapon: It cultivated a police officer to dig into a law enforcement database to figure out which of its customers might be undercover informers, according to an indictment filed against Minnis and 20 other alleged ring members. There is no indication the officer actually identified an informer, or that his prying into the REJIS database led to anyone being hurt. Yet the accusation against St. Louis police Officer Antoine Gordon, who has since resigned, suggests that crime rings can target REJIS or other databases to insulate themselves against investigations. "A police officer's participation in a drug conspiracy heightens the risk to civilians and other law enforcement officers," then-U.S. Attorney Jim Martin said at the time of Gordon's indictment in February. "Such conduct is inexcusable." Yet Joe Mokwa, the St. Louis chief of police, said recently that he was unaware of anyone's safety being endangered by any breach of confidential information by Gordon. The charges against Gordon also show that the password protection of the REJIS data bank works very well, Mokwa said. "This case personifies exactly the effectiveness of the system," the chief said. "We had intelligence that somebody was running people's names involved in narcotics cases without a legitimate reason, and we ran those names and found out who it was, and took the appropriate action." Mokwa said officers use REJIS on a daily basis, and tightening security would be burdensome. "You have to rely upon the integrity of officers to use the system properly," he said. "To change it, you would have to restrict their access." The widely used REJIS system, formally known as the Regional Justice Information Service, was launched in the mid-1970s for sharing information between St. Louis and St. Louis County. It evolved to include some 200 organizations, in Missouri and Illinois. Most are police departments, but others include prosecutors, courts and correctional agencies. In February, federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment accusing Gordon of using a database in June 2004 to perform "record checks" for the drug ring to determine whether customers who got heroin from Adrian Minnis on June 10, 2004, were working as "confidential sources" for police. In so doing, Gordon aided and abetted the gang's trafficking conspiracy, a felony, the indictment claims. Gordon, 34, of the 1600 block of O'Fallon Street in St. Louis, has resigned from the department, pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. He had joined the force in 1997. Several attorneys in the case said Gordon is a relative of the Minnis family, perhaps a cousin. His lawyer, Rodney Holmes, acknowledged that his client did perform the record checks, but said there is no evidence it was to aid a drug ring. "You're not supposed to be running record checks for friends and family," Holmes said. "It was done. There's no denying that." "From my perspective, there's no clear indication or evidence to support that he knew this was for drug transactions, Holmes said. Gaining inside police information has long been a prize of criminal organizations. Earlier this year, federal officials accused two New York officers of passing confidential material to the Mafia in the early 1980s. The two also are accused of carrying out murders for the Luchese crime family. St. Louis police have found improper use of REJIS by officers in the past. When a city officer was found to have made up a false sex charge against his ex-wife in 2001, an internal police investigation showed REJIS was used to obtain information about her. The officer quit in 2002 as the department moved to fire him. In another case, a Pine Lawn officer used REJIS in 2002 to track down and threaten a motorist after an angry encounter while driving. That led to the officer's conviction on a charge of harassment. A Violent History The Minnis gang first came under scrutiny as long as 15 years ago, according to a federal magistrate judge's ruling in the case. The judge noted that the ring's members have a history of murder, weapons violations and assaults, making it unsafe for undercover agents trying to infiltrate. The family has a violent past. On Aug. 25, 1992, Leta Minnis, 38, a mother of 11 children, was shot to death on her front porch in the 5000 block of Vernon Avenue in St. Louis. Investigators said then they did not know whether the intended target was her or her son Antonio Minnis, a member of a gang called the Piru Neighborhood Gangster Bloods, who was standing nearby. He allegedly was involved in a shooting two months before in which six people, including a 6-month-old baby, were wounded, police said. His brother, Adrian Minnis, then 20, had pleaded guilty - the day before his mother's death - of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man. Two years earlier, Adrian Minnis was using a one-way ticket to fly to San Diego when authorities discovered $15,500 in his luggage, according to a judge's ruling in the current drug case. The money was seized as drug proceeds, though he was never charged in connection with it. Another brother, Terrell Minnis, was convicted of cocaine possession in 1993, second-degree assault in 1994 and involuntary manslaughter in 1998. He was released from prison in 2001, state records show. All three Minnis brothers would spend parts of the decade after their mother's death in prison. The indictment charges the three Minnis brothers, Gordon and 17 other defendants with carrying out the drug conspiracy from September 2001 to February of this year. Thirteen of the 21 defendants have pleaded guilty. But the brothers are standing by their pleas of not guilty, and may be helping Gordon in the process. Antonio Minnis appeared in court in June, apparently ready to change his plea, but backed out after objecting to a statement about Gordon in the proposed plea agreement. In a letter to the judge, Antonio Minnis complained that his court-appointed lawyer told him prosecutors agreed to take the reference to Gordon out of his plea agreement. "It was still there when I read it at court," he wrote, without revealing what the document said about Gordon. Did prosecutors want Antonio Minnis to say Gordon had performed a REJIS check for the drug ring? Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Tihen, a prosecutor on the case, declined to comment. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman