Pot times July 16, 2005

Undercover Drug Buys Described

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1123/a05.html
Newshawk: Humphrey Ploughjogger http://www.MassCann.org

Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 2005
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc
Contact: letters@berkshireeagle.com.
Website: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Author: Ellen G. Lahr, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/felix+aguirre

UNDERCOVER DRUG BUYS DESCRIBED

PITTSFIELD -- The undercover officer who has been accused of illicit conduct during a summer-long drug investigation in Great Barrington described yesterday how "Jose," his adopted persona, eased into an open-air, daylight drug culture, where merchandise was plentiful and few questions were asked.  "They rarely asked ( about me ); in Pittsfield, they always asked," said Felix Aguirre, 29, who is employed by the Pittsfield Police Department but was assigned last summer to the Berkshire County Drug Task Force's Great Barrington investigation.

During his testimony in the Superior Court trial of 18-year-old Kyle Sawin, Aguirre described three occasions on which he bought marijuana from Sawin, on June 30, July 6 and Sept.  3 last year; the "eighth-ounce" packages cost $50, and each contained about three grams of marijuana.

Sawin is among 17 young people facing a minimum of two years of jail time under the school-zone law; he is one of seven defendants with no prior record who are accused of small-scale drug transactions.

The Otis teen, whose parents have been sitting hand-in-hand in court this week, is charged with three counts of marijuana distribution and three counts of committing a drug violation in a school zone, which carries a minimum mandatory two-year jail term.

The trial has generated protest from citizens who oppose the Berkshire district attorney's prosecution of the school-zone charge against teens with no prior records.

Spectators in the courtroom yesterday included parents of other defendants, their lawyers and members of Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice, a grass-roots group that is challenging how the cases are being prosecuted.  Sawin's lawyer, Judith Knight, has laid groundwork for upcoming defense testimony that Aguirre was aggressive and persistent with his vendors, and that Sawin was vulnerable and easily swayed.  But Aguirre testified yesterday that Sawin never resisted or appeared uneasy about selling marijuana.  Under questioning by prosecutor Richard Locke, Aguirre testified that on July 6, he went with Sawin and Sawin's girlfriend to a set of stairs near the Taconic parking lot off Railroad Street.  The officer said Sawin took a scale from his backpack and measured a $50 bag of marijuana from a larger package, while his girlfriend kept watch.

Knight, building on the claim of another defendant that Aguirre had used drugs and provided alcohol to get friendly with local teens, began inching toward that allegation in her cross-examination, but Judge John Agostini sustained Locke's objection.  The allegation surfaced last week in a pretrial motion by Mitchell Lawrence of Otis.

Knight, who has not yet begun her defense, tried to undermine Aguirre's testimony on cross-examination by questioning his willingness to "live a lie" in order to infiltrate a drug subculture.  She suggested he was eager to impress his bosses in the Berkshire County Drug Task Force.  "I never did this to prove anything," said Aguirre, who testified that he has made hundreds of drug buys in seven years as an undercover officer.  "I have nothing to prove to anyone."

Locke laid the groundwork for Aguirre's testimony earlier yesterday with state police Sgt.  David B.  Foley, Aguirre's supervisor in the drug task force.  Foley testified that Aguirre "is so good he should train other people" in undercover work.

He said Aguirre had been personally involved in drug buys that led to 80 arrests in Pittsfield in the late fall of 2003 and early spring of 2004; before that, he had worked undercover for the Springfield Police Department, making "hundreds and hundreds" of buys.  Aguirre was one of many Springfield municipal employees who were laid off in the spring of 2003, said Foley.  Foley said of Aguirre, "he's the best.  He gets results, he's good." He said Aguirre had been so active doing drug buys for Pittsfield that his work eventually became too risky.  People were beginning to suspect him, and so he was assigned to the Great Barrington investigation, Foley said.  "We were concerned for his safety," said Foley.

Foley also testified that Aguirre was under constant supervision and surveillance by other officers, that he was rarely out of their sight.  Within a day or two of setting up a police surveillance system in the Taconic parking lot, said Foley, Aguirre made his first drug buy.  The visits by Aguirre into the Taconic lot were visible from inside the Daily Bread bakery on upper Railroad Street, where officers kept watch, snapping digital photographs as the action unfolded, according to other police testimony yesterday.  Meanwhile, a group of roving plainclothes officers were on constant watch, in vehicles and on foot.

Great Barrington Police Officer Paul Storti said he spent hours with Foley watching from the bakery windows, focusing mainly on Aguirre.  Storti testified that Aguirre had no problem making deals.  For instance, Storti said, on a single day, July 6, Aguirre bought drugs from five different people.  Storti, a veteran of the Great Barrington Police Department, said he sought help from the state police drug investigators to combat growing crime and drug problems in and around the Taconic lot last year.

Testimony ended yesterday with Aguirre's cross-examination still in progress.  Also unresolved as of yesterday was whether Agostini would allow Knight to add three new defense witnesses to her list.

Locke argued that no new witnesses should be allowed "mid-trial." Knight replied that Sawin had only recently given her the names of people who would testify as to Aguirre's conduct.