Pubdate: Sat, 28 Aug 2010
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2010 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: Ryan Sabalow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

SUIT SHINES LIGHT ON CONSULTANTS: SHASTA SHERIFF MUM ON ROLE OF TWO CONTRACTORS

Attorneys representing defendants who have accused north state drug 
agents of racial profiling say the Shasta County Sheriff's Office is 
paying a consultant $91,104 for analytical research, yet the agency 
claims to have no records of what is actually being analyzed.

Assistant Federal Defender Lauren Cusick said that her office 
subpoenaed the North State California Multi-jurisdictional 
Methamphetamine Enforcement Team (Cal-MMET) for records generated by 
consultant Brett Hayslett.

The sheriff's office, which manages Cal-MMET, responded to the 
subpoena in writing this month, saying, "There were no records or 
documents in existence" related to her request.

"Either they're lying, or they're paying $91,000 a year to generate 
nothing," Cusick said Friday. "One of those things is true."

Sheriff Tom Bosenko countered Friday that his office responded to the 
request "with what was requested and what was within the law."

He wouldn't elaborate.

Citing the sensitivity of Cal-MMET's criminal investigations, Bosenko 
declined to divulge what exactly Hayslett does for Cal-MMET other 
than to say "he analyzes information" regarding criminal and drug cases.

"The information he does provide to Cal-MMET is 
law-enforcement-sensitive," Bosenko said. "It wouldn't be public 
information. It's also involving open investigations as well."

In June, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a 
$91,104 annual contract with Hayslett's firm, Hayslett Analytical 
Services. The contract automatically renews in 2011 and again in 2012.

Board of supervisors records from 2007 say that Hayslett is based in 
Shasta Lake. He didn't return a message left Friday.

During the same June meeting, the Shasta County supervisors also 
approved a contract with Mike Baker, the owner of Baker Investigative 
Services. His annual contract is $89,755 with two automatic renewals. 
He couldn't be reached for comment. It was unclear Friday what town 
his office is based in.

Cusick also had subpoenaed documents Baker had generated, but the 
sheriff's office responded to that request saying it had no records 
of Baker's work either.

Bosenko said Hayslett has been a consultant with the Cal-MMET program 
since its inception, in 2002. Baker has been a consultant since 2007, 
according to board of supervisors records.

"Both consultants are responsible to analyze, collect, categorize and 
disseminate information and intelligence necessary for criminal 
prosecution of methamphetamine manufacturers and traffickers," 
Bosenko wrote in his request for board approval for the contracts.

Baker also testifies in court as an expert, and he has expertise in 
"preparing and obtaining court approvals/orders for search warrants, 
wire taps, pen registers, vehicle tracking, pole cameras and other 
types of covert surveillance requiring court orders," Bosenko wrote.

A pen register is an electronic device that records activities on 
phones and computers.

In response to questions by Supervisor David Kehoe about why a 
sheriff's office employee couldn't do the consultants' work, Bosenko 
explained that law enforcement personnel do not have Hayslett's and 
Baker's experience and training, according to supervisors minutes.

Cusick's request for records comes in advance of a Sept. 13 hearing 
in Sacramento at which a federal judge could decide whether Cal-MMET 
is pulling over suspects along Interstate 5 based on their race.

"Is this guy providing them with demographic information?" Cusick 
said of Hayslett. "Is he saying you should be pulling over Hispanic drivers?"

Her client, Jose Salvador Sanchez-Palomino, is one of at least 12 
suspects who have alleged in federal and Shasta County courts that 
Cal-MMET is racially profiling Hispanics and other minorities along 
Interstate 5 north of Redding.

Racial profiling falls under the category of "selective prosecution," 
which courts have ruled unconstitutional since the mid-1970s.

Sanchez-Palomino, 31, of Mexico, along with Fransisco Javier Velasco, 
34, of Los Angeles were arrested on I-5 by Cal-MMET agents in 
February 2009. The pair were charged with transporting 13 kilograms 
of cocaine, which agents allegedly found inside a hidden compartment 
in the trunk of their car. Velasco is out on bail. Sanchez-Palomino 
is in federal custody in Nevada County, Cusick said.

This spring, the Shasta County public defender's office filed court 
documents alleging that for years deputies working for Cal-MMET 
specifically targeted Hispanic drivers suspected of hauling cash and 
drugs along I-5.

It's a charge Bosenko and Cal-MMET agents adamantly deny.

Senior Deputy Public Defender Mike Horan this spring filed a racial 
profiling motion on behalf of Saul Arais Guzman, a 25-year-old 
Portland, Ore., man who was arrested in August 2009 on I-5 on 
suspicion of running drugs.

Shasta County Superior Court Judge James Ruggiero in June denied 
Horan's motion, saying in his ruling that reasonable proportions of 
whites and Hispanic drivers were being stopped by Shasta County drug 
agents on I-5.
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