SAN DIEGO : Judge Reduces Bail in Drug-Ring Case
A traffic referee named in a major methamphetamine indictment will probably be freed today, after Superior Court Judge Frederic L. Link reduced his bail Thursday from $1 million to $25,000.
Donald Wayne Russell, 40, is charged with acting as a legal adviser to a nationwide methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution ring that investigators say was smashed earlier this week.
Attorney Tom Adler, who represented Russell at Thursday’s bail review hearing, said the attorney is facing criminal charges for doing things that criminal defense lawyers do every day, including agreeing to meet one man for a meal and agreeing to purchase a copy of the penal code.
Russell resigned from the Municipal Court before the indictment was handed down, but he remains on the payroll until June 15.
Russell and the other defendants named in the 24-count indictment are scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
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