A year after the Fresno Police Department disbanded its major narcotics squad, a criminal case under way in federal court is shedding light on what may have gone wrong.
The case involves Theresa Martinez, who is on trial in U.S. District Court in Fresno, accused of selling drugs to a police informant.
Martinez's defense lawyers say the charges are bogus because she was working as a Fresno police informant when she was arrested in March 2008. They say narcotics officers set her up.
But prosecutors say she wasn't an informant at all by that time and is just looking for a way to get off the hook.
"When the muck settles, it will be crystal clear that Ms. Martinez is guilty," Assistant U.S. Attorney Elana Landau said.
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Her allegations, meanwhile, have sparked a flurry of testimony about the credibility of Fresno's narcotics investigators -- and so far it paints a picture of cozy relationships between drug informants and police officers. For example:
A sergeant testified that he and other officers let an informant get away with the armed robbery of drug dealers. The informant was not arrested, and no police reports were made.
An officer testified that he gave informants cell phones that police had confiscated from drug dealers. The cell phones were never booked into evidence.
Two officers related by marriage were disciplined for renting a relative's house to an informant, one of the officers testified.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer disbanded the drug unit in February 2009 after two of its officers were charged with stealing a drug suspect's van. One officer was found not guilty, and charges against the other were dismissed, but questions about the drug unit lingered.
Dyer never has fully explained why he shut the unit down, other than to say it relied too heavily on informants.
Dyer resurrected the drug unit in August. He made some reforms recommended by an auditor, such as limiting the term of narcotics officers to five years.
Testimony in the Martinez case will continue the rest of this week, and Judge Oliver W. Wanger has said that jurors will hear evidence of alleged police misconduct -- as long as it's relevant to the theory posed by defense lawyers Marc Days and Charles Lee. They say officers used Martinez to retaliate against her friend, another informant who filed a complaint against police.
"The evidence will show that Theresa Martinez was a criminal betrayed by even bigger criminals -- people who wear a badge and gun," Lee said Thursday in opening statements.
Working for the police
Martinez, a Mexican national, began working as an informant for the Fresno Police Department soon after her arrest in November 2006 for possessing three pounds of meth, Lee said. In exchange for leniency, she signed a contract with the Fresno Police Department to work as an informant.
Informants can be paid up to $10,000 per bust, but Martinez was working under a provision that required her to help police confiscate three times as much in drugs as the amount she was caught with. She did that and more.
Martinez helped police make two big busts resulting in the seizure of more than 45 pounds of drugs, $30,000 in cash and a gun, Lee said
One police officer -- Manuel Robles -- was so impressed with her work that in 2007 he applied to get a "public benefit parole status" for Martinez so she could stay legally in the United States, Lee said.
After that, Martinez's relationship with the Police Department becomes murky. On April 30, 2007, U.S. immigration officials picked up Martinez when she showed up in Fresno County Superior Court for her sentencing on the 2006 drug charges. They deported her. Her special parole status was approved the next day, too late to help her. Later that year, Martinez returned to the U.S. illegally.
One issue in her federal case is whether she continued to be an informant. Landau, the prosecutor, has said Martinez's relationship with police was terminated when she was deported. Lee, however, said she resumed her role as an informant, working under officer Ubaldo Garza.
The defense lawyers say Garza and Robles worked together to set up Martinez. The reason: She was friends with an informant named "Luis" who had complained that Robles didn't pay him as agreed for his work. Robles testified that the formal complaint led to his suspension for 20 work hours, the equivalent of about a couple days.
As the police Internal Affairs unit investigated Luis' complaint, Lee said, Garza told Martinez in February 2008 that he wanted to get a drug dealer named "Angel," who was seeking to purchase four pounds of methamphetamine.
Robles testified Friday that Luis' code name was Angel.
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When Martinez said she had access to five pounds of methamphetamine, Garza instructed her to sell four pounds of drugs to Angel, and to hide the other pound of drugs at Luis' home, Lee told jurors.
But when Martinez delivered the drugs to F and Kern streets on March 1, 2008, she was arrested along with her partner, Miguel Gallegos.
After Martinez was arrested, she told narcotics officers that they could find another pound of the drug at Luis' home, Lee said. That tip lead to the seizure of the drug and the arrests of Luis and Israel Santillanes.
Before trial, Luis, Santillanes and Gallegos admitted guilt and were sentenced to prison. Martinez, however, is contesting the charges because she "had a reasonable belief" she was still working as a police informant, Lee told jurors.
Martinez, 46, is charged with conspiracy and possession of methamphetamine to sell. If convicted, she faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, lawyers said.
A question of credibility
The prosecution's case hinges on the credibility of Robles and Garza. Defense attorneys have tried to highlight why they are not credible.
For example, Garza once was the subject of a California Highway Patrol investigation into an illegal chop shop operation, according to a search warrant affidavit. A chop shop involves stolen vehicles that are stripped for parts.
Landau, the prosecutor, called Robles to the stand Friday to deflect some of the criticism.
Robles acknowledged to jurors that he was disciplined for having poor judgment -- he gave informants cell phones that were confiscated from drug dealers. The cell phones also weren't booked into evidence, he said.
In addition, Robles testified that he was suspended for not telling his superiors that Garza had rented their father-in-law's home to an informant. The wives of Garza and Robles are sisters. Garza also was disciplined, Robles said.
The prosecution also called Sgt. Walter Boston to the stand, because he supervised the arrest of Martinez. Under cross-examination, Boston went into more detail about the conduct of Luis, the informant who was friends with Martinez.
Boston testified that Luis was one of the best informants and had helped police bust more than 100 drug dealers. But Boston said Luis' contract was terminated in 2007 after police found out he was robbing drug dealers at gunpoint.
Boston then admitted that police didn't write police reports about the crimes or arrest Luis at the time.
Robles could be asked to take the stand again when the defense presents its case this week. He still is a narcotics officer, but Garza is not. Robles testified that Garza was removed from the unit about a year ago, although he didn't say why.
Garza, now an officer in northwest Fresno, is expected to testify when the trial resumes Tuesday
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/02/28/1841181/fresno-drug-cops-under-scrutiny.html
