Former Federal Prosecutor Arraigned on Charges of Running a Cocaine Ring

A Los Angeles lawyer and former federal prosecutor was arrested Friday outside his Pacific Palisades house on charges--detailed in indictments in San Diego and Phoenix--that he ran a cocaine ring with his clients and failed to pay taxes on drug money, federal authorities said.

Prosecutors also suggested that Juan Paul Robertson, 44, stole $980,000 cash, a 1979 Cadillac and two kilograms of cocaine from his clients. Calling it the “ultimate betrayal,” U.S. Atty. William Braniff in San Diego said Robertson had taken the cash, car and cocaine from California to Arizona.

Robertson, who prosecuted criminal cases as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1976 to 1980, pleaded innocent to the charges during an arraignment Friday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles.

The cocaine-related charges were filed in San Diego because agents believe most of the cocaine was distributed in northern San Diego County, Peterson said.

The tax charges were filed in Phoenix because Robertson maintained a house in Paradise Valley, Ariz., from 1984 through 1988, and because the $980,000 cash, the Cadillac and the cocaine were transported to Arizona, he said.

The San Diego indictment, filed Thursday, details eight felony counts--including a racketeering charge--linked to the cocaine ring, which prosecutors said Robertson directed from 1983 through 1987.

The indictment charges Robertson with one count of conspiracy to possess cocaine, three counts of distributing cocaine, a sole count of using the telephone to distribute cocaine, a single count of running a “continuing criminal enterprise” and one count of criminal racketeering.