Flyboy
Member
http://www.theagitator.com/archives/027306.php#027306
(Yes, I know the source is of marginal credibility; see also: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2006/12/07/1208metsearch.html, upon which this article is based).
(Yes, I know the source is of marginal credibility; see also: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2006/12/07/1208metsearch.html, upon which this article is based).
I'd add comments, but given that just about every sentence of the story seems to detail a significant foul-up on the part of Atlanta's vice squad, what's the point? I will say, though, that I never thought I'd see the day when the ATF was the good guy.The credibility of the narcotics officers in the Johnston raid just took another hit:
It was Fabian Sheats' third felony drug arrest in four months. But on the afternoon of Nov. 21, according to a police report, he was looking to curry favor, so he told officers they could find a kilogram of cocaine in a house at 933 Neal Street N.W.
That encounter led police to the home of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who lived alone behind burglar bars and kept a rusty revolver. When officers burst into the house just three hours after talking to Sheats, a shootout ensued that left the woman dead and three officers wounded. No cocaine was found.
Sheats' arrest report, made public Thursday, sheds new light on why officers targeted Johnston's home.
Police say they used Sheats' tip to direct a confidential informant to the Neal Street house, where he made a drug buy, leading them to conduct the raid. A man named Alexis White later came forward to say he is a longtime informant and police asked him to lie after the shootings and say he bought drugs at the address. Police will not say who the informant was.
Just two hours passed between the time Sheats offered the tip and the time the police obtained the warrant. For us to believe what's written on that warrant, we would have to believe that police took Sheats' tip, called up White, brought him to the scene of the raid, had him conduct the buy, wrote up the warrants, got the magistrate's signature, assembled the raid team, then commenced the raid -- all in about three hours.
I'm pretty convinced at this point that Mr. White is telling the truth. The pieces fit together like this: This raid was conducted based on nothing more than a tip from Sheats, a convicted drug felon who was looking for leniency. For whatever reason, he sent police to Johnston's home. The narcotics officers then hid behind the anonymity courts afford to informants, and fabricated the stuff about the buy. They took a shortcut. When the raid went bad, they chased down an informant they'd used in the past -- White -- and asked him to lie to cover their asses, just as White says they did.
Even worse, it now looks like they were willing to intimidate him if he didn't cooperate. Consider this new wrinkle:
A tape of a 911 call released Thursday added a strange twist to the ever-changing tragedy.
On the tape, an insistent and anxious-sounding man identifying himself as White told an operator, "I have two cops chasing me. They're on the dirty side, two undercover officers."
[...]
On the 911 tape police released Thursday, White said he was waiting for agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to pick him up on Nov. 22 when he was approached by Atlanta police. He got into the car with them, he told the operator, but jumped out when he talked to federal agents by cellphone and they told him not to get into the squad car.
"They came and picked me up they asked me about that killing yesterday," White told the operator. "But, ah, they tryin' to play it off. So ATF told me 'Don't get in the car with them.' By that time then, I was already in the car with 'em."
The operator sounded incredulous. "OK, so you're calling the police to say the police are chasing you?" she asked.
"Listen to me," the frustrated White responded. "I don't know who's on whose side; they're playing dirty," he said. "There's a lot of stuff going on."
Crazy. If this call can be authenticated as White, we now know why he came forward. He was scared to death. And he probably had every reason to be. It'll also be interesting to see if federal investigators can verify the conversation he says they had with him as he was getting into the APD patrol car. And if so? Holy crap is **** going to go down in Atlanta.
Police in the article try to dismiss the apparent lack of time between the tip and the raid, adding that officers can work through the details over the radio, meaning trips back and forth to the police station weren't necessary. Of course, even if that's true, the fact remains that police conducted this raid based on, at worst, a tip only from a convicted felon, and at best, on the word of a confidential informant they now say is a liar. There's simply no way this no-knock warrant should have been granted.
Even if the slim window between tip and raid isn't enough to make us believe the informant over the narcotics officers it still makes the cops look pretty bad. It shows that they did no corroborating investigation whatsoever before breaking down this woman's door. There was no kilo of cocaine. There were no security cameras.
Of course, given that Officer Tesler has already been implicated in lying about a traffic accident he caused, and that the APD itself also lied early on about an undercover detective conducting the buy that led to the raid, the public would be wise to take everything Atlanta police say at this point with a heaping fistful of salt.
