U.S. Counts on Felons in Trial of Drug Officers

The elusive drug dealer known as “Freeway Rick” figures he grossed $1 million to $2 million a day selling cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and customers in several other states.

“I didn’t really care about the profit,” Ricky Donnell Ross, 31, told a federal grand jury last fall. “You know, I made enough that whatever I wanted to do, I could do.”

Now Ross--serving a 10-year drug sentence in Ohio and the target of investigations in Texas and Louisiana--is coming back to Los Angeles, this time as a government witness against six Los Angeles narcotics officers accused of beating drug dealers, stealing money from some of them, and planting cocaine on others.

Ross and more than a dozen other drug dealers are among the 100 witnesses slated to testify against Los Angeles Police Department Officer Stephen W. Polak and sheriff’s Deputies John L. Edner, Roger R. Garcia, Edward D. Jamison, J.C. Miller and Robert S. Tolmaire when their trial begins Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

The officers once worked together on anti-drug teams known as the Lennox crew and the Southwest Task Force targeting middle-level and major drug dealers, including the man whose ability to hopscotch the south Los Angeles area gave him the nickname “Freeway” Ricky Ross.

Theirs is the second trial stemming from a money-skimming scandal that erupted within the Sheriff’s Department almost two years ago. During the first trial, several drug dealers also took the stand against deputies, but that testimony supplemented a prosecution case that included a secretly recorded audiotape and the videotape of an FBI sting.

In the Southwest case, there are no incriminating tapes. As a result, the federal government will rely more heavily on the testimony of criminals it once prosecuted, in hopes of convicting narcotics officers who once were lauded for their anti-drug work.

“There’s a lot of strange bedfellows in this case--on both sides,” said Ross’ attorney, Jerald Newton.

The government’s witness list includes imprisoned drug traffickers who, like Ross, generally are in their 20s and 30s and have colorful monikers and checkered pasts.

There is Sylvester (Puddin) Scott, 37, a convicted rapist and drug dealer who authorities said helped found the Compton Pirus, a street gang that spawned the notorious Bloods.

There is Dion (Chubby) Floyd, described by authorities as a top lieutenant for the Grape Street Crips who supervised the gang’s narcotics operation in St. Louis. Records show that Floyd has three felony drug convictions and a fourth felony conviction for involuntary manslaughter.

Then there is Ollie (Big Loc) Newell, who grew up with Ross in Los Angeles and is serving a 15-year prison term in Indiana for cocaine trafficking. Mindful of the risks in his business, Newell told grand jurors he often slept with several guns for protection from his rivals.

All three men, as well as Ross and the other convicted drug dealers, are expected to testify that from 1985 through 1987 the narcotics officers on trial were so zealous in pursuit of their quarry that they often beat suspects into confessions, planted drugs to ensure arrests, stole money and property during raids, then fabricated police reports or lied in court to cover themselves.

If convicted, the officers could face terms ranging from 33 years and a $1.1-million fine for Jamison to 57 years in prison and a $2.6-million fine for Tolmaire.

The officers have denied the allegations--which are contained in a 34-count federal indictment--and their attorneys say they are eager to confront the drug dealers-turned-government witnesses.

“This is a pretty straightforward case,” said Jamison’s attorney, Bradley Brunon. “You have presumptive liars who are not credible. These are dope dealers who get by through guile and lying, and the way they get out of prison is by cooperating with the government.”

Attorney Roger Cossack, who represents Tolmaire, said the government’s dependence on the drug dealers and their friends shows that the case hinges more on “the quantity of witnesses rather than the quality of witnesses.”

Federal prosecutors declined to discuss specifics of their case, but they said they will rely on more than just the testimony of drug dealers.

Former Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, who headed the Southwest crew and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and filing a false tax return, is scheduled to testify against his former subordinates--as he did last year in the first drug money-skimming trial. That trial ended in the conviction of seven former sheriff’s narcotics officers.

In addition, prosecutors are expected to produce financial records purporting to show that some deputies spent money well beyond their means--cash that prosecutors will maintain could only have come from thefts.

According to court records, federal agents also will testify that they found an illicit $10,000 at one deputy’s residence, a stolen jade elephant figurine at the home of another deputy, a pilfered electrical generator at the home of a third deputy’s mother and other contraband.

“I think it’s fair to say that everyone is prepared to go forward, and we’re eager to begin,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Emmick, who heads his office’s public corruption and government fraud section.

In preparation for the trial, government prosecutors have turned over more than 16,000 pages of documents to defense attorneys and have told U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi that the trial should take three months to complete.

If so, that time frame would surpass the two months of testimony in the first money-skimming trial that ended with six deputies convicted of conspiracy for theft while a seventh deputy was convicted of violating bank reporting requirements. All are serving prison sentences ranging from two years to five years.

Meanwhile, an ongoing federal and local investigation that began in October, 1988, continues, said federal prosecutors.

In addition to those set to go on trial, two other indicted deputies are awaiting trial and another deputy, who was convicted last year, faces a second trial in November. More than a dozen deputies also remain on suspension.

Prosecutor Emmick refused to comment on whether more indictments are likely. He also declined to compare the first trial with his current case except to note that “the most obvious similarity is that Robert Sobel is a significant witness, and these are the two crews with which he operated.”

In court papers, Emmick said Sobel’s testimony could take five days. Defense attorneys have promised a withering cross-examination for the former sergeant, who commanded both the Lennox and Southwest crews and who is the only deputy known to be cooperating with the government.

“The government’s case really comes down to Sobel and the drug dealers,” said one defense attorney, who asked not to be identified.

Aside from Sobel, the most dramatic testimony in the trial is expected to come from the drug dealers being brought from their prison cells in other cities to testify. Emmick said jurors will be reminded that those witnesses are also victims in the case.

“Under the Constitution, we all have civil rights regardless of our backgrounds,” he said. “The jury will be instructed on that legal principle, and we expect jurors to adhere to it.”

Whether jurors believe the word of convicted drug traffickers against those of veteran police officers is a question raised not only by defense attorneys but by other prosecutors familiar with some of the dealers.

“I wouldn’t want to be an assistant U.S. attorney trying to prosecute police officers based on the testimony of someone like Ricky Ross. That would be a tough job,” said one federal prosecutor familiar with the case.

Ross was convicted in Ohio last year of conspiracy to sell cocaine and sentenced to 121 months in prison, authorities said.

Mike Horton, a police officer assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration task force in Ohio, said Ross was called the “10-million-dollar man” on the streets of Cincinnati because of how much money he was allegedly making in the cocaine business.

“I wouldn’t believe a word he said. He refused to cooperate with us in the furtherance of our investigation. But he chose to talk to the people in Los Angeles,” Horton said. “It’s his way of getting back at the system. He’s going to jail, and he’s going take some coppers with him.”

Ross’ attorney, Newton, said his client first made civil rights allegations against the narcotics officers, long before they were believed by the government.

“Mr. Ross has always been willing to testify against those officers,” said Newton.

According to prosecutors, one Southwest crew member shot at an unarmed Ross in April, 1987, after a car chase. The bullet missed Ross, but another officer took a kilogram of cocaine from the trunk of a police car “in order to plant it” on Ross, prosecutors said, and both officers lied about the incident in court hearings.

Ollie Newell, one of Ross’ boyhood friends, was also in the car the night of the shooting and was beaten with a metal flashlight, according to the indictment. Two months earlier, some of the same narcotics officers allegedly beat Newell, kicked him and tried to smother him with a plastic bag during a raid on an Inglewood home.

Newell, who was later convicted of drug trafficking in Indiana, is serving a 15-year prison sentence.

Another witness who will be transported from prison to testify is Sylvester Scott, described by one law enforcement group--the Western States Information Network--as co-founder of the Compton Pirus. The gang originated on West Piru Street in Compton and “is the first known Blood gang,” said the network, an intelligence-gathering consortium of law enforcement agencies in five states, including California.

Scott is now in Chino State Prison after he was convicted in San Bernardino County of selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.

In 1987, Scott was living on West Piru Street with his parents when he was arrested by members of the Southwest crew.

According to federal prosecutors, the narcotics officers “planted” a plastic bag containing 118 grams of cocaine in Scott’s car and arrested him on drug charges. Scott told the FBI and grand jury that $16,000 that he kept in a paper bag was missing after deputies searched his mother’s home--though he said he never reported the theft because the cash came from drug sales.

Jurors will hear another drug dealer, Floyd, contend that more than $10,000 was stolen from a duffel bag containing more than $104,000 in cash.

They also will hear other witnesses claim that deputies stole fur coats, crystal figurines, jewelry, the jade elephant and the generator during raids. They will be told of alleged beatings with flashlights, leather saps and fists--and the alleged torture of one suspect with the sharp spine of a tropical fish.

The cooperation of Ross and the others could lead to a reduced sentence or other benefits although federal prosecutors declined to state what kind of deal has been struck with those witnesses.

Assistant U.S. Atty. William Hunt, who prosecuted Ross in Cincinnati, said any reduction in Ross’ sentence would be based on a recommendation from Los Angeles prosecutors but that the final decision would be left to his office and a federal judge in Ohio.

“There is a provision in Ross’ plea agreement that provides for the possibility of a reduction in his sentence in return for substantial assistance to the government,” Hunt said.