Firing of Officer May Affect Huge Drug Case, Defense Attorney Says

The firing of a Newport Beach police officer who discovered six tons of marijuana aboard a sailboat last year casts a shadow on his reliability as a key prosecution witness in the case, a defense attorney said Friday.

The former officer, Jeff Henig, was dismissed in October “for not being honest” during an internal investigation of “allegations of drug use by him prior to being employed by this department,” Newport Beach Police Chief Arb Campbell said.

“He was not terminated for drug use . . . , and I will state emphatically that it had nothing to do with this drug boat case and nothing to do with Henig being in any way dishonest on the job here or in any of the reports that he wrote,” Campbell said.

No Charges Filed

Campbell would not reveal the exact nature of the allegations, saying only that the investigation indicated “there might have been at one time some drug use.” No criminal charges have been filed against Henig.

Henig, 36, who lives in Irvine, said in a telephone interview that he has a new job but he would not say what it was. He would not comment on his dismissal or on his participation in the upcoming trial of the three men he helped arrest for allegedly smuggling $12 million worth of marijuana into the country from Colombia.

Robert Weinberg, an attorney for one of the defendants, said Henig’s dismissal makes the value of his testimony doubtful.

“How relevant is Henig? He’s the one who boarded the boat . . . , who said he smelled marijuana and opened the hatch,” Weinberg said. “I think his credibility is an issue.”

Judge’s Ruling Due

A Superior Court judge is scheduled to decide next month whether defense lawyers should be allowed to see Henig’s personnel files from Newport Beach and Stanton, where he had previously worked as a police officer.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Borris, the chief prosecutor in the case, said Henig’s dismissal “doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”

Henig said, however, that prosecuting the case--still the largest marijuana seizure in the city’s history--without Henig’s testimony “would make it a lot harder.”

Bringing the three alleged drug smugglers--Richard W. Nelson, 27, Victor Paul Lucini, 36, and David Paul Choy, 29, all of Santa Cruz--to trial has already proven difficult for prosecutors.

Dismissal Noted

At the defendants’ first preliminary hearing, Harbor Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom dismissed the charges against them, saying that the Jan. 21, 1985, search of the 45-foot ketch, which was moored on the Balboa Peninsula, and the seizure of the baled marijuana were unlawful. Bostrom asked the Orange County Grand Jury to investigate authorities’ conduct in the case.

The grand jury found no evidence of wrongdoing and indicted the three men. They were ordered to stand trial after a second preliminary hearing earlier this year.

That trial is due to begin next February.

But last month, Henig told prosecutor Borris on at least one occasion that he would not testify in court, according to a memo Borris wrote after the conversation.

The memo also says that Henig threatened to provide newspapers and defense attorneys with information about a secret meeting of Newport Beach police and drug authorities on the case if prosecutors forced him to testify. The information would harm “the integrity” of the Newport Beach Police Department, Henig reportedly said.

Quizzed by Investigators

Investigators questioned Henig for about 30 minutes just three days after his conversation with Borris. But Henig said he could not remember saying anything about a secret meeting to Borris.

“I was extremely upset, and I don’t recall saying those things,” Henig told the investigators on Nov. 10.

Henig, who had failed to appear in court on a subpoena in the marijuana case earlier that day, then agreed to cooperate in the upcoming trial. He appeared when subpoenaed on Nov. 24, and Borris said he expects that Henig will be present when the trial begins in February.

“I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t be,” Borris said.