Evidence in St. Louis drug ring case should be tossed after alleged DEA misconduct, lawyers say
ST. LOUIS • Efforts to nix key evidence against accused members of a violent St. Louis drug ring have revealed a Justice Department investigation of claims that a Georgia DEA official had sexual relationships with paid informers.
The target, a DEA supervisor in Atlanta, allegedly was involved with two confidential informers and paid one of them $212,000 in agency funds, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch.
Much of the court material is under seal. The woman who received the funds testified for hours Monday in the closed courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Shirley Padmore Mensah in St. Louis. Reporters were kept out, although Mensah promised to make a redacted transcript of the testimony available later.
Defense lawyers say in a pending motion that questionable information from the woman, known as “CS1” for “confidential source 1,” laid the foundation for the investigation of Dionne L. Gatling, Andre Alphonso Rush, Timothy Lamont Rush and Lorenzo Gibbs. The four were subsequently indicted, in 2014, on various federal drug-related charges.
The charges against Gatling and Andre Rush allege they were involved in two murders here.
Based on information provided to them by federal prosecutors, the lawyers said in the documents that the Atlanta-based supervisor’s subordinates admitted helping him justify payments to CS1 by falsely claiming her information was used to advance criminal investigations.
Defense attorneys’ documents say the supervisor had used CS1 to “launder” information agents obtained illegally, or their hunches, by claiming it came from her.
The money was paid starting in 2011, including two DEA bonuses, of $55,000 and $80,750. The woman said she had no idea why she received bonuses, according to court filings. DEA money was at one point used to pay roughly the amount of CS1’s monthly rent after she moved closer to the supervisor, defense lawyers indicated that prosecutors told them.
None of the DEA staffers, who also are based in Atlanta, has been criminally charged, but an internal investigation is underway, the filings say. The supervisor reportedly has denied all the accusations.
James Shroba, head of the St. Louis DEA office, said Monday the agency takes “these allegations extremely seriously” and vowed that they would be “thoroughly investigated.” He declined to comment on other aspects of the case or on the status of the Atlanta supervisor.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta did not respond to a reporter’s questions about the case.
Practices faulted before
The DEA’s use of informers was faulted in a report released last month by the Justice Department Office of Inspector General.
The report says that management and oversight of the confidential source program needed “significant improvement.” It complains that there is not adequate oversight of payments, “which exposes the DEA to an unacceptably increased potential for fraud, waste, and abuse, particularly given the frequency with which DEA offices utilize and pay confidential sources.”
It also says the DEA had over 18,000 active confidential sources between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2015, who were paid a total of $237 million.
The agency also has been accused of failing to discipline agents accused of misconduct.
Federal prosecutors allege that Gatling led a drug trafficking organization linked to the “Black Mafia Family,” dealing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in the St. Louis area.
A superseding indictment filed in 2015 says that Gatling, then 47, and Rush, then 50, also were involved in two murders.
Prosecutors say Gatling orchestrated the shooting of Theodis Howard, 41, in St. Louis on April 5, 2010, because Howard cooperated in an investigation that led to a prison sentence of more than 17 years for Gatling’s brother, Deron Gatling.
Prosecutors also say the pair then killed Terrance Morgan, 41, in St. Louis on May 2, 2013, because they feared he would cooperate with authorities against them.
CS1 was the original source of information about drug dealing by Gatling and the others, according to DEA agents in Atlanta in 2012, court documents show. They called her a reliable confidential source who had been working with the DEA for at least two years.
She reportedly introduced Gatling to a source of drugs.
In 2012, DEA agents in St. Louis used that information to apply for a series of wiretaps on Gatling that led to his indictment and the others.
But defense lawyers say in court filings that CS1 actually knew Gatling from a prior business relationship and that at the time the DEA sought the wiretaps, she did not have the knowledge agents claimed about drug dealing.
Allegations of misconduct
In 2015, prosecutors disclosed to defense attorneys that an Atlanta supervisor was under investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, and that he and two others were under internal investigation by the DEA.
The supervisor allegedly had personal and sexual relationships with two confidential sources, made improper payments to CS1 and falsified DEA reports to justify the payments, the defense lawyers were told.
Others were under investigation for allegedly falsifying the reports, and reportedly said they did it at the supervisor’s direction, the documents say.
The defense argues that since the entire investigation began with DEA claims about what CS1 knew, and those claims are wholly or partially false, all evidence obtained as a result of the wiretaps should be tossed out.
With many documents under seal, it’s not clear how prosecutors have responded.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean Hoag obtained an order closing the courtroom for CS1’s testimony Monday, saying that she, and even her daughter, had been threatened. Prosecutors claim that Gatling had summoned others on social media to watch the testimony, possibly so they can identify her by sight. Gatling has already disclosed CS1’s name, prosecutors said.
The accused supervisor testified in another case that he has been an agent since 1999. His current employment status is unknown.
Filed under: General Problems
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