Source: Orange County Register (CA) Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Pubdate: Sun, 28 Mar 1998 Author: Stuart Pfeifer, Peter Larsen and Kim Christensen-OCR O.C. TEEN INFORMER CASE HAS PARALLELS Chad MacDonald's story is one of several in which families say informants died or were at risk. Gregory"Sky" Erickson was 15, an aspiring professional golfer from Estherville, Iowa. Last May, he sat in a conference room with police and prosecutors who wanted to make a deal. Arrested during a traffic stop for allegedly possessing a small amount of methamphetamine, Erickson could avoid prosecution by digging up information on area drug dealers, recalled his father, Gregory Erickson. A week later the teen-ager was found beaten and shot to death. His body had been set on fire and dumped across the Minnesota state line. "I feel responsible because I talked him into this," the elder Erickson said. "There's just a lot of people that miss the hell out of him." While police say the boy was killed over a drug debt, his father contends he was slain because he had been an informant. His story resembles one now playing out in Orange County involving the death of a Yorba Linda teen-ager who was killed, his mother says, because he had ben a drug informant for Brea police. Neither case is unique. From the Atlantic Coast to Silicon Valley, there have been other situations involving juvenile informants, some that have had deadly results: A Roanoke, Va., teen-ager was slain by a man from whom the boy had bought drugs as a police operative. A San Jose youth was plucked from a county juvenile-detention hall to work undercover for police on a bust that resulted in the death of one man and the wounding of an officer. While legal, the use of minors as police informants has drawn sharp criticism from juvenile-justice advocates and experts on police conduct. "I think it is improper, and I don't think they should be doing it," said James J. Fyfe, a Temple University criminologist who has testified as an expert witness in police-misconduct cases. "The primary responsibility of the police is to protect lives," he said. "A drug arrest is not worth putting a kid's life at risk." Many police agencies don't condone the practice and say they don't employ minors as snitches. But others argue that using juveniles is sometimes the only way to infiltrate drug operations. The controversial practice was thrust into the public spotlight after Chad Allen MacDonald, 17, of Yorba Linda was tortured and strangled at a Norwalk drug house earlier this month. Hes mother alleges that in the weeks before his death he'd made drug buys for Brea police to avoid prosecution on a methamphetamine charge. Chief Bill Lentini says MacDonald was on his own the day he died. He would neither confirm nor deny the boy's previous involvement with his department, but said juveniles had made at least five drug buys for Brea police investigations. While many police officials say that minors are used sparingly if at all - and almost always are required to have written permission from their parents - several cases illustrate why the practice is controversial. IOWA YOUTH'S ROLE DISPUTED In the Iowa case, police ultimately arrested 10 people in connection with Sky Erickson's killing. His father says they are people the 15-year-old turned in to police. "Do I think there should be an age limit for who can act as an informant? Well, it's pretty obvious that a 15-year-old wasn't able to handle what took place," Gregory Erickson said. Clay County Attorney Mechael Zenor said there had bee "some discussion" about the youth's providing authorities with information about drug dealing, but that he died before he could act on that arrangement. The suspects later told investigators it was revenge over a drug debt that prompted the killing, Zenor said. "The whole motive was that he owed a drug debt to these bad guys and he didn't pay up." said Zenor, who is prosecuting Erickson's accused killers. So far, six of the 10 have been convicted. Had Sky Erickson been prosecuted as a juvenile after his first arrest, he probably would have spent about sex months in juvenile custody the same sentence MacDonald would have received. Zenor doubts it would have prevented Erickson's death. "Oh, come on," he said. "That would be a hell of a stretch to say if he had gone to rehab he wouldn't have been killed. He would have still owed the money when he got out, and the motivation was the money." POLICE: TEEN VOLUNTEERED Sixteen years after Cecil Calloway was slain, his family still blames the police who used the 16-year-old as an informant in Roanoke, Va. "Even though he was streetwise, by him being that young I know he didn't understand what could happen to him," said his sister, Jo Ann Calloway, 29. Her family believes Cecil Calloway met police officers while he was in a detention home for boys after getting nabbed for stealing and truancy. After he got out, he began hanging out with a Roanoke vice officer named Pete Sullivan. Calloway said she believes her brother thought he was buying drugs for a cop who wanted them for illegal personal use. Sullivan, now a sergeant, said the boy knew police were using his information and drug buys to arrest dealers. "He walked in and just volunteered," he said. "We didn't have any charges on him, he wasn't working anything off; he just came in off the street and wanted to help us. He just said he wanted to get the drugs off the street." Cecil did a good job, he said, helping on the arrests of three or four dealers. It was a job for which he was paid a small amount of money and in which he took some measure of pride. "We found out later that he was going around telling people he was a junior narc," Sullivan said. But it wasn't Cecil's bragging that led to his death, Sullivan said. It was the fact that one of the dealers Cecil bought from followed him down the street and saw him get into a car with two vice officers. Robert Earl Rose, a nightclub owner known as Mr. E, heard that Cecil was working for the cops. Rose had recently been arrested - not long after selling drugs to Cecil - and police say he sought revenge. Rose was convicted of shooting and bludgeoning the boy and dumping his body on a remote stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He died in prison in 1994 while serving a life sentence. "It's a risk they take," Sullivan said of juvenile informants. "They know it in the back of their minds. And we take every precaution we can with our informants. We don't throw them to the wolves with their eyes closed. I feel bad about it. But I don't fee responsible for it." The Calloways sued the city, the Police Department and Sullivan for $500,000, alleging they failed to protect Cecil. The suit was dismissed, but police now require officers to get parental permission before using juveniles. "My brother, he was just flat out used," Jo Ann Calloway said. INFORMANT KILLS HIMSELF In 1989, the mother of Robbie Williamson, 17, sued the city of Virginia Beach, Va., after the teen-ager killed himself with drug overdose. Dorothy Williamson alleged that police had used her son as an informant without her permission and had failed to take into account his troubled past. He was on probation at the time for theft and burglary, and had been in out of a psychiatric treatment facility. "If they had talked to his probation officer, taken the time to talk to me, they would have found out how unstable Robbie was," she said in court papers. Police and city officials contended the boy volunteered and knew what he was doing. If Robbie had been younger and less mature, they said, his mother's permission would have been sought. "Robbie was 17 at the time, and he was judged be the people he was working with to be mature enough to make that decision on his own," said L.Steven Emmert, a senior city attorney who added that the youth was used only as a source of information, not as an undercover agent. His mother's lawsuit contended that his status as an informer became known to drug dealers through police negligence. Threatening phone calls began the day after his information led to the arrests of several dealers, she said. The family said in court that Robbie killed himself because of those threats, Emmert said. The judge dismissed the case in 1992, ruling that the boy's constitutional rights had not been violated. His mother refiled her suit in state court, seeking $2.5 million. The city settled it for $48,750 but admitted no liability. Emmert said the city now uses juvenile informants only in "extremely limited" situations, and only with parents' written consent. Detectives no longer may use juveniles without a captain's approval. LAWMAKERS WANT CHANGE Change has been proposed by legislators because of the MacDonald killing. Assemblyman Scott Baugh, R-Huntington Beach, last week proposed emergency legislation that would prohibit police from using juveniles in similar cases. State Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, has called for a hearing before the Senate's Public Safety Committee. Nationwide, there is no consensus on how or whether minors should be used as police informants. Often, police department have no policy on the issue until controversy arises. That's what happened in Lexington, Ky. in the mid-1980s, after two teen-age boys were used by police in a male prostitution sting. A 16-year-old - who said he agreed to work after he was arrested for auto theft - and his 14-year-old cousin posed as male prostitutes and were picked up by a Lexington lawyer and driven to his apartment. The older boy - whose mother had given he consent - wore a microphone so police could listen to what happened. But before officers arrived the younger boy - whose family knew nothing of the police operation performed oral sex on the man for $20. His mother later filed a lawsuit, seeking $12.5 million from 20 defendants. It was settled out of court. The mayor of Lexington called the undercover operation "a mistake" that "sort of got out of hand" and issued strict guideline: police could use juveniles only as a last resort and only with the approval of the public safety commission, commonwealth and county attorneys, and a social worker. The International Association of Chiefs of Police - with 16,200 members in 104 countries - has no specific policy position on the issue, said spokeswoman Sara P. Johnson. Its model policy on confidential informants recommends only that juveniles be used in accordance with department policies and state laws. However, a background paper on confidential informants warns law enforcement agencies to exercise caution with juveniles and says it is "essential" that two officers be present at meetings with juvenile informants and that written consent forms be signed by a parent or legal guardian. Some juvenile-justice advocates contend that minors should never be used. "It is irresponsible to put someone at that age at that abount of risk," said Dan Macallair, associate director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit group in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. "The worst label, the most dangerous label that could be put on a kid in some of these neighborhoods is 'a snitch' or 'a narc' or whatever word they're using," Macallair said. "That alone can put a kid in serious danger." In the mid-1980s in San Jose, a 17-year-old Juvenile Hall inmate was released to police investigating a drug and theft ring. "They checked him out like a library book," said Scott Ewbank, a San Jose lawyer and member of the Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commission. The undercover operation went bad, sparking a shootout. The juvenile ducked in time to dodge a bullet, but one officer was wounded and a suspect killed. Paul Lepak, a Santa Clara County deputy probation officer, said the use of teen-age informants is simply too risky. "You're basically putting a child in a situation that is dangerous from the get-go," he said. "I can't imagine any agency wanting to do that. The liability is just tremendous." Ewbank said he will ask the commission to make sure that no Santa Clara County agencies are using juvenile informants. "I'm hoping that lesson from 13 years ago isn't forgotten," he said.