Accuser of Henley ‘Never Chose to Ask’

A former Rams cheerleader testified Thursday that she thought she was carrying suitcases of cash, not cocaine, when she flew to Memphis and Atlanta at the behest of Rams cornerback Darryl Henley and his friends.

But Tracy Ann Donaho, a key prosecution witness against Henley and four others on trial for federal cocaine trafficking charges, admitted that she should have known better.

“There were so many things that were suspicious,” Donaho testified, taking the witness stand for a second day. “I never chose to ask. I should have known.”

Donaho, choking back tears several times, said she had previously resisted her misgivings about making the trips because she trusted Henley, whom she had started dating about six months before her arrest in July, 1993.

Donaho recalled bristling when her sister suggested that she might have been breaking the law during her first trip to Memphis, in which she was paid $1,000 to deliver what she believed to be a suitcase of cash to one of Henley’s co-defendants.

“I remember getting really defensive and said to her, ‘Darryl would never do that to me,’ ” she testified. “He was like my best friend. It was ridiculous.”

Donaho, who has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport cocaine, spent most of the day answering questions about the trips from Assistant U.S. Atty. John Rayburn. By the end of the day, however, she faced tough questions from the defense about her testimony.

Henley, who was indicted in December, 1993, on federal charges of cocaine possession and conspiring to operate an illicit drug network from his home in Brea, has vigorously maintained his innocence. His lawyers have charged that Donaho is accusing the star football player of involvement in the alleged drug ring in the hopes of winning a greatly reduced sentence.

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Henley, 28, and Donaho, who was 19 at the time, were among eight people indicted by a federal grand jury for their alleged roles in the drug ring.

Prosecutors have said Henley functioned as a “front man” for the drug ring, guaranteeing the supplier returns on the cocaine with his hefty Rams paychecks.

But Henley’s attorneys have said he is only friends with the co-defendants and never participated in the alleged drug conspiracy.

If convicted, Henley faces a minimum of 12 years and a maximum of life in federal prison, as well as up to $4 million in fines. He remains free on $200,000 bail.

During testimony Thursday, Donaho said that Henley suggested in May, 1993, that she could work for a friend, co-defendant Willie Haghey McGowan, and earn some extra money to pay her bills by carrying a suitcase containing a large amount of cash to Memphis.

Henley told her to pick up the suitcase at his home in Brea, Donaho testified.

Donaho recounted that trip in great detail, telling of one missed flight in Ontario and a second one booked under the name “Maggie Williams” a few hours later in Burbank.

Donaho said that, once she arrived in Memphis, Gary West, a co-defendant who picked her up at the airport, spent hours trying to find enough cash to pay for her flight home. By the time she returned home to Orange County, Donaho said, she was scared.

“I thought that I definitely knew I didn’t want to do it again,” she told the jurors, looking directly at them during much of her testimony.

But in July, 1993, Donaho testified, she agreed to make another similar trip to Atlanta because it meant she would be able to spend some time with Henley, who was living there at the time.

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This time, however, she was greeted by federal DEA agents as she was reclaiming the suitcase at the airport. Donaho said she told the agents that the suitcase belonged to a friend and that she did not have a key to it. The agents seized the bag, but allowed her to leave.

Donaho said she spent most of the day with Henley and two other co-defendants. She eventually returned to the airport to straighten things out with the DEA agents, using a story she had concocted with Henley, she testified.

Donaho said it wasn’t until she was being arrested that she realized the bag contained 12 kilos of cocaine, worth about $250,000 on the street.

Donaho admitted that she had lied to the DEA agents about who the suitcase belonged to. However, she testified that she later decided to tell the truth and cooperate fully with the authorities.

Under questioning from defense attorney Roger Cossack, Donaho admitted that part of the reason she pleaded guilty was to avoid the risk of being convicted by a jury, which would have carried the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence.

Cossack will continue his cross-examination today.