Undercover Cop Snagged in Dark Web of Drug World : Police: Former Chula Vista Officer George Hart, who became addicted to ‘crack’ while on the force, is charged with stealing 3 1/2 pounds of cocaine. He denies the allegation.

In 1989, after nearly three years of working undercover in the shadowy world of junkies and drug dealers, Chula Vista Police Officer George Hart found himself in the middle of a drug cop’s darkest nightmare: He was addicted to rock cocaine.

For Hart, a 16-year police veteran, the addiction was insatiable. Another narcotics officer said Hart routinely carried a glass pipe and up to 50 screen filters, which were used to hold a lighted “rock,” and smoked crack while on duty.

At the time, Hart was assigned to the Narcotics Task Force, a group of drug officers from local police departments organized in teams supervised by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents--in the South Bay and San Diego.

There were times when Hart would arrest people for selling or using drugs, and then go off somewhere to enjoy a “hit” of rock cocaine. But the 15- to 30-minute high he enjoyed could not erase the images of the junkies or dealers he had arrested.

“I would see their faces and say, ‘Those are the people I arrest.’ But then I would have to look again and say, ‘That’s also you looking at you,’ ” Hart said in a recent interview.

Through sheer determination and willpower, Hart eventually beat his drug habit in 1990, but at a heavy price.

Hart, 46, said the combination of stress and cocaine caused irreparable damage to his heart. In May, 1991, following quadruple-bypass heart surgery, Hart retired. He is now under consideration for a heart transplant.

And, after his retirement, Hart thought that his drug problems were behind him.

However, on May 21 of this year the San Diego County Grand Jury indicted him on eight felony counts ranging from grand theft to forgery. The charges stem from alleged illegal activities that occurred in 1989. Among the charges was an allegation that Hart stole two AK-47 assault rifles, which were later found to be in police custody, that were seized from a drug dealer.

But the most serious charge against Hart was the allegation that he stole 3 1/2 pounds of cocaine while he was a member of the NTF. The drug, which was valued at $100,000 at the time, has never been recovered. Hart denied stealing the cocaine and the other charges against him.

In some ways, his life and career have come down to questions. Like how, after more than a decade of what even prosecutors acknowledged was a distinguished law enforcement career, did he turn into what some have called a dirty cop?

According to Hart, it was a combination of stress, a feeling of being unappreciated and underpaid by his department, and a brush with death in 1989 that led him to a dependency on rock cocaine.

“I was working undercover and went into a house near Market Street (in San Diego) to buy some crack from two guys. I was alone, no gun, no radio, and my partner was outside. The crooks had guns. The informant introduced me to them. One crook’s saying, ‘He’s a cop.’ The other’s saying, ‘No, he’s not. I’ve sold to him before,’ ” Hart said.

According to Hart, the suspicious drug dealer remained convinced that he was a police officer.

“He says, ‘Then let’s see you smoke some crack with us. You wanna buy it. You’re a user, use it.’ ”

When he begged off, concocting a story that he was on probation, the drug dealer pointed a .38-caliber handgun at him and threatened to shoot, Hart said.

“He gets down before me, cocks the gun and says, ‘Either you smoke it, or you’re gonna die.’ I had nobody else inside with me. . . . So, I did smoke some rock cocaine. Bang! Instant addiction! I went back and dealt with these guys a couple of more times again, same type of thing, smoking crack,” Hart said.

Law enforcement officials said that, in a life-or-death situation, when an undercover officer needs to use drugs to maintain his cover, a drug officer is authorized to use drugs. But an officer also is instructed to inform his superiors whenever circumstances force him to use drugs in an investigation.

Hart said he never told anybody he smoked crack the first time because, “I didn’t want the police to know that I was smoking rock cocaine.”

Skinny and with a look of gullibility, Hart was the perfect undercover cop. His gaunt appearance and the numerous gold chains and rings that he favored made it easy for Hart to blend in with the world of junkies.

In fact, Hart was so dedicated to playing his undercover role that he would use a lead pencil to draw lines on his arms to simulate needle tracks. Several officers who knew Hart or worked with him said he immersed himself in narcotics work, often toiling 60 or 70 hours a week in dangerous drug assignments, while rarely getting paid for more than 40.

“After a while I did notice that his behavior had changed. But I just attributed it to his job,” said Diane Bradt, Hart’s girlfriend of many years. “He was a workaholic, completely dedicated to the Police Department. If he was off, and they needed somebody, he never hesitated to go in and work.”

But, for at least six months in 1989, Hart hid a dark secret he said was known only by his family and his NTF partner, National City Police Officer William J. Rudershausen.

When he was not playing the role of drug cop, busting doors and arresting “dopers and scumbags,” Hart was cruising seedy areas in downtown San Diego, buying crack from street dealers to satisfy his habit.

In interviews with The Times, Hart credited Rudershausen for helping him come to grips with his addiction.

“Rudy could see what was happening. He finally said to me, ‘If you don’t tell them, I will.’ He told me that he couldn’t trust me anymore,” Hart said.

In testimony before the grand jury, former Chula Vista Police Chief William J. Winters said Hart told him about his drug problem at a Dec. 22, 1989, meeting. Hart then went on emergency leave for a few weeks. In early 1990, he returned and was put on desk duty and subjected to random drug tests.

It was soon after he returned to work that Hart realized he had plummeted to the bottom of the drug pit.

During an interview, Hart began to cry when he described how he groveled before his two grown sons and Bradt, his girlfriend, who is a hospital nurse, and begged them to provide him with urine samples.

By his own admission, Hart said he “tested dirty most of the time” when city officials checked him for drugs. Finally, early in 1990, Winters, his patience and tolerance worn thin, threatened to fire him unless he cleaned up his act.

“I tried everything to deceive people. Nothing mattered any more than my dope. I tried to get my sons to (urinate) in a bottle for me. . . . I called (Bradt) at the hospital and asked her to get me a specimen,” Hart said.

“It (the addiction) was so powerful I didn’t care. That’s how far down and dirty I had gotten. I wasn’t embarrassed. I had no shame at the time,” Hart said, tears streaming from his eyes.

The refusal of his sons and Bradt to participate in the deception finally persuaded Hart to do something about his crack addiction.

In December, 1989, a few days after acknowledging that he was a drug addict, Hart checked into a drug treatment center. But he walked out less than 24 hours later, appalled by the sight of other junkies.

“I know it sounds stupid, but I was dead-set against drugs. I put crooks in jail for doing this . . .,” said Hart in a recent interview at his lawyer’s office.

But the truth was that Hart was a junkie. Late into his addiction, while he was still with the NTF in 1989, Hart made no attempt to hide his dependence on crack.

“This became the worst nightmare I ever faced in my entire life. I smoked crack. I never snorted it or shot it up. . . . I did it in an NTF car. I smoked it at the office. I smoked it in front of my partner. I smoked it at home. My kids would come in the house and they would say, ‘You’re doing it,’ ” Hart said.

But Winters’ warning convinced Hart that he was out of chances. There was no alternative: He had to overcome his addiction or be fired.

Acording to Hart, he ended his drug addiction “cold turkey” after Winters delivered his final warning in early 1990. He retired from the Chula Vista Police Department in May, 1991.

Twelve months later he was indicted by the grand jury.

According to a grand jury transcript, Hart checked out 3 1/2 pounds of cocaine from the Chula Vista Police property room on July 14, 1989. Winters testified that was the last time anybody in his department but Hart saw the drug.

Hart admitted checking out the drug but said the cocaine was meant for an NTF reverse sting that never materialized.

In an explanation that other law enforcement officials dismissed as disingenuous, Hart said he was going to do the reverse sting alone and without the knowledge of his partner, Rudershausen.

Officials familiar with NTF operations scoffed at Hart’s explanation of a reverse sting. They said that such operations are regulated and tightly controlled by DEA policy. Before initiating a sting, where narcotics officers will “flash” drugs or money to drug dealers, the operation has to be approved by DEA officials in Washington.

“The policy is there for a reason, and George Hart is the reason. You had a rogue cop who conned his department and shamed the (narcotics) task force,” said one knowledgeable drug officer.

By Hart’s own account, he carried the cocaine in the trunk of his car for about six months, until December, 1989, when he acknowledged his drug addiction to the Police Department. That same month, he for the first time openly discussed his drug problem with his sons and ex-wife.

As a result of the family meeting, George Hart Jr. called Chula Vista Police Officer Nate Hines and asked him to retrieve the 3 1/2 pounds of cocaine, said the elder Hart. Hines has denied ever receiving the cocaine.

Although both father and son are sticking to the story that Hines was given the cocaine to return to the police property room, George Hart Jr. invoked the Fifth Amendment when called to testify before the grand jury.

Hines, who later proved to be another embarrassment to the Chula Vista Police Department, also was a drug officer with the NTF and worked on the same narcotics team as Hart.

On Sept. 28, 1991, Hines, 34, an eight-year Chula Vista police veteran, pleaded guilty to single counts of grand theft and the sale of 55 pounds of ephedrine, which is used to manufacture methamphetamine. The grand theft charge stemmed from allegations that Hines stole money from drug dealers.

The ephedrine had been seized from drug dealers, and Hines later stole it from the Chula Vista Police property room. The theft was discovered in January, 1991, when one of Hines’ female informants was arrested with the drug in a motel room.

The informant told police that Hines had given her the ephedrine to sell for him.

In exchange for Hines’ guilty pleas to the two felony counts, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 12 other counts. He is now serving a two-year sentence in state prison.

Hart said the last time he saw the missing 3 1/2 pounds of cocaine was in December, 1989, when Hines came to his house to retrieve it. He denied selling the drug or using it to manufacture the crack he was smoking.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Nate stole the cocaine. He stole the ephedrine, why couldn’t he steal the cocaine?” Hart said.

In his grand jury testimony, Hines repeatedly denied receiving the cocaine from Hart or his son. He also denied ever seeing Hart in possession of the missing drug.

However, Hines testified that, on one occasion, he saw Hart heat cocaine powder in a microwave oven until it crystalized. He said that Hart then put the crystalized cocaine in the freezer, where it hardened into rock cocaine.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William J. Collins said he believes that Hart stole the cocaine to manufacture the crack that he was smoking daily.

An angry Hart denied that he stole the missing cocaine to manufacture his rock cocaine.

“I never ripped off drug dealers. I never stole any of my evidence, like it’s been alleged with the cocaine,” Hart said.

Instead, he said he would buy rock cocaine from street dealers on Market Street in San Diego and in Barrio Logan.

“Yeah, I was buying dope from (dealers), and still playing undercover roles. . . . Sometimes I would get ripped off and get bunk. Other times I would get the actual thing,” Hart said.

He estimated that his drug habit was costing up to $40 a day.

Hart said he had several close calls while buying drugs, but one in particular sticks in his mind.

“I kept buying from these two (dealers). They happen to notice my jewelry. They set me up for a robbery, and I didn’t know it. . . . I’m in the car by myself. They stuck a gun to my head and said they were going to kill me. They ripped the gold chains off my neck.”

“Now, I’m sitting there. I just got robbed. What do I do? I can’t call a cop and tell him I’m down there buying rock cocaine, and I just got robbed by two guys,” Hart said.

Before Hart’s indictment in May, most drug officers who worked in the South Bay had heard rumors about his drug addiction. Still, the grand jury indictment came as a crushing blow to the close-knit world of narcotics officers, who already felt betrayed by Hines’ 1991 conviction.

However, a law enforcement officer who worked with Hart was sympathetic about his addiction and legal troubles.

“If it happened to George, that only proves that even nice guys can be victimized by drugs. I don’t care what his problems with drugs were, he’s still a good person,” said the officer, who did not want his name used.

Meanwhile, Hart is anxiously awaiting his September trial date. His attorney, Dan Krinsky, said he is afraid that the stress on Hart’s damaged heart brought on by his legal problems may kill him.