Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jun 2013
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2013 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Les Zaitz
Series: Under the curse of cartels - An Oregonian Special Report

'LEN BIAS' STRATEGY A POTENT TOOL FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

Oregon leads the nation in using a "Len Bias" law as a weapon against
major drug traffickers.

The strategy: After someone dies of an overdose, investigators
threaten all those in the supply chain with a 20-year sentence if they
don't lead to the next link.

The tactic, pioneered by Oregon's Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen
Bickers, could be seen in action this month in federal court in Portland.

The case started a year ago, when 22-year-old Erin Freeman died of a
heroin overdose in her Portland apartment while home with her
16-month-old baby. She had left a treatment program just two weeks
before.

Portland police traced Freeman's drugs to a ring headed by Samuel
Navarette-Aguilar, 40, who escaped from a Washington prison in 1999
while doing time for drug trafficking. After gathering evidence from
his underlings, investigators arrested Navarette-Aguilar and a man
they identified as his drug runner, Saul Guzman-Arias.

The 20-year sentence for those who sell drugs leading to a death comes
from federal laws passed after Len Bias, a Maryland basketball star
just drafted by the NBA, died of a cocaine overdose in 1986.

Early on, the sentence wasn't used that much. Most drug cases involve
small amounts, and police and prosecutors hadn't realized the law's
power to break up drug gangs.

Then Bickers came along. She first used the penalty as a club in a
2004 Salem heroin death. Though the victim had bought less than 5
grams, Bickers won 12 1/2-year sentences in a plea deal with the
couple at the top of the chain.

Oregon has had 40 Len Bias prosecutions since then, the most in the
nation. Now Bickers regularly trains other state and federal
prosecutors.

The prosecutions, she said, reach past the first- and second-tier
dealers to "those traffickers who believe they remain Teflon at the
top of the organization." Heroin traffickers in particular, she said,
are suddenly finding "an alarming number of their own people" willing
to talk.

Eric Sterling, former counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
that handled the Len Bias laws, said the tough sentence gives
prosecutors leverage against big drug organizations.

"In order to enforce loyalty and or silence, they're merciless,"
Sterling, now president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation,
said of traffickers. "Prosecutors need much more powerful incentives
to get someone to crack." He said defense attorneys now advise
lower-level clients -- "the guy who is just the unloader or driver" --
to cooperate.

Back in Oregon, Bickers' work inspired Steve Mygrant, a Clackamas
County deputy district attorney, to propose tougher state sentences in
overdose cases involving injury or death. That would give state
prosecutors their own leverage, freeing them from having to shift
cases into federal courts.

Under current law, an Oregon trafficker whose drugs kill someone faces
60 days in jail, plus probation. Mygrant's proposal, in House Bill
2204, would increase that to a minimum four years and eight months in
prison.

"These Len Bias cases have been very successful in taking out these
dispatch-model trafficking organizations," Mygrant said. "We really
need a little better tool for these lower-level guys."

As for Navarette-Aguilar and Guzman-Arias, the traffickers in court
this month: Bickers is seeking life sentences, a first in an Oregon
drug case, because both have prior drug convictions.

A jury convicted the two of drug conspiracy but acquitted them of
causing Freeman's death. Bickers said she will still ask the judge to
consider Freeman's death during sentencing, where the standard of
proof is less than at trial.
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