Zaccaro Claims Entrapment as Drug Trial Starts

A lawyer for John Zaccaro Jr. admitted Friday that his client sold cocaine but said the son of former vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro had been tricked into making the sale by an attractive female officer.

Zaccaro, 24, is on trial in Vermont District Court on allegations that he illegally sold a quarter-gram of cocaine to the undercover officer two years ago. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

“The defense will not dispute the allegation that he sold a regulated drug,” Charles Tetzlaff said in his opening statement Friday. “This is a case of improper and overzealous police conduct.”

Tetzlaff said that “an attractive female police officer” on her first undercover assignment entrapped Zaccaro into making the sale. He said it was the woman, not Zaccaro, who brought up the subject of buying drugs.

Low Police Budget Cited

Prosecutor John Quinn conceded in his opening statement that Officer Laura Manning was inexperienced, but he asked jurors to keep in mind that the Middlebury Police Department is a low-budget, small-town operation.

The prosecutor painted a picture of Zaccaro as a well-organized drug dealer.

Quinn said that, when Manning asked to buy cocaine, Zaccaro pulled a tray from under his couch with 15 packets of the drug.

Prosecutors and police have said that Zaccaro was known at Middlebury College as “The Pharmacist” because of his reputation as a drug dealer.

Manning’s drug buy occurred on Feb. 20, 1986, at Zaccaro’s off-campus apartment. Zaccaro was arrested a few days later after police officers searched his car and apartment.