Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Ian Duncan

APPEALS JUDGE ISSUES STINGING REBUKE IN STASH HOUSE CASE

Controversial strategy has judicial critics, but is liked by law
enforcement

A federal appeals judge recently took aim at the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' use of fictitious drug
robbery schemes to secure lengthy prison sentences for would-be rip
off crews, strongly criticizing the practice in a written opinion.

The so-called reverse stings follow a pattern: An informant or
undercover agent poses as a disgruntled courier and invites a group of
people to rob his employer of a half-million dollars or so worth of
drugs. But Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that such tactics raise
important issues about wealth inequality in the United States and whom
authorities decide to pursue.

"They pose the question whether the government may target poor,
minority neighborhoods and seek to tempt their residents to commit
crimes that might well result in their escape from poverty," Reinhardt
wrote in the politically tinged filing.

The key agent in the case, Richard Zayas, is an ATF veteran who has
worked in Maryland, and last year The Baltimore Sun examined
challenges to similar operations here. They have been carried out by
both the ATF and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Reinhardt's opinion was joined by the chief judge of the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals. It was written in opposition to the court's decision
not to hear a second round of arguments in an Arizona case that ended
in the convictions of four defendants.

Authorities in Baltimore say reverse stings are a vital tool for
catching violent criminals who make a living robbing stash houses and
who are otherwise difficult to stop. But defense lawyers have
questioned whether their clients were really hardened criminals.

The facts of the Arizona case also raise questions about how carefully
agents select their targets. According to court documents, Zayas
brought a paid confidential informant, or CI, from Miami and sent him
to find "bad guys" in "a bad part of town."

Reinhardt took the instructions to mean the informant should look in
neighborhoods that are home to minorities.

"In an age of widely reported unequal enforcement of the criminal
laws, both at the state and federal levels, the sort of assignment
given to the CI is an open invitation to racial discrimination," the
judge wrote.

A federal trial judge in California recently threw out a set of
charges in a similar case, but generally judges - including those in
Maryland - have upheld the strategy. And despite Reinhardt's strong
words, the majority of the 9th Circuit judges agreed with the decision
not to rehear the Arizona case.
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MAP posted-by: Matt