Ex-Ram Accused of Jail Plot to Have Federal Judge Slain
Former professional football star Darryl Henley used cellular phones from his jail cell to try to arrange the contract killing of a federal judge and to have $1 million worth of heroin ferried cross-country by a jail guard, a federal prosecutor charged in court Tuesday.
The former Los Angeles Rams cornerback allegedly ordered hits on U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor, who presided over the trial at which Henley was convicted of cocaine trafficking, and on a Rams cheerleader who was caught delivering drugs to Atlanta for Henley and testified against him in 1995. Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc Harris said Henley used cellular telephones smuggled to him to orchestrate the drug deal and hire a killer. In both cases, the deals were struck with undercover federal agents posing as criminals.
In a bail hearing Tuesday for jail guard Rodney Anderson, the prosecutor said federal agents had tape-recorded Henley discussing the heroin deal with an undercover agent as a way to finance the pair of $100,000 contract hits.
Anderson, a guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles since February 1994, knew about the planned hits and was using his “federal law enforcement connections” to track down the location of the former cheerleader, Harris said. Anderson, who was a guard on Henley’s floor, routinely provided him with a cell phone for use during his shift, Harris said.
Although the contract hits became a central issue in Tuesday’s court hearing, Harris said his office did not know if it had enough evidence to charge Henley with conspiring to kill Taylor.
“We have to make that decision,” he said.
Taylor declined to comment on the alleged contract. Former Rams cheerleader Tracy Ann Donaho could not be reached for comment. But her attorney, Stephan DeSales, said both he and his client were “warned” about the contract. “We’re aware of the potential threat. She’s protected,” DeSales said.
Henley, Anderson, 29, of Los Angeles, and Jimmy Washington, 49, Henley’s alleged Detroit drug connection, were arrested Saturday and are facing federal drug trafficking charges. The cases against them will be presented to a grand jury next week.
Anderson is being held in protective custody at an undisclosed location in Orange County. Henley also is being held at an undisclosed location after his transfer from the detention center, where he had been held without bail while his attorneys fought to win a new trial on the cocaine trafficking conviction.
Harris refused to reveal how federal agents became aware that Henley was involved in narcotics trafficking at the jail, where he has been an inmate since March 1995. Harris also declined to say whether Henley is suspected of any other drug deals while in jail or has made any other threats.
“We do not contemplate any further arrests in connection with this heroin transaction. I think we got all the players,” Harris said.
The new charges mark the second time Henley has been arrested on suspicion of cross-country drug trafficking. In 1995, he was convicted of running a cocaine distribution network out of his Brea home, using Donaho, then 19, as a courier. Donaho, who was the key witness against Henley, was sentenced to four months in a halfway house and probation for her role.
Henley was awaiting sentencing and the outcome of post-trial motions at the downtown Los Angeles detention center when federal agents learned of his new activities, authorities said.
According to court documents, Henley’s plans began unraveling when an undercover drug agent called him May 16 in his cell and offered “large quantities of China white heroin and cocaine” for sale.
Henley, using cell phones provided by Anderson, called Washington in Detroit to arrange a meeting the next day between the undercover agent and Washington at a Riverside hotel, the documents say.
Henley informed the agent that he was working with Anderson, a guard he had known “a long time” and that Anderson could deliver the narcotics to Detroit, according to the documents.
Two days later, undercover agents met with Anderson at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport and arranged a test run: Anderson would pick up 1.5 kilograms of what he thought was heroin at the airport the next day and take it to Detroit, the documents say. If the drug run went through without a hitch, a bigger deal would be arranged.
On May 20, Anderson took the bag to Detroit, handed it to an undercover agent and returned to Los Angeles, according to the documents.
The next day, Washington again met with undercover agents and arranged to buy $1 million worth of heroin, taking a small sample to Detroit for testing. Henley told the agents that Anderson would transport the drugs to Detroit and Washington would handle distribution in Detroit, prosecutors said.
On May 22, Anderson called in sick to make the drug run, but the deal appeared to fall through when Washington and his Detroit connections could not come up with the cash, court records show.
During a phone call May 23, Henley told an undercover agent that he would “speak with Washington regarding the transaction,” according to the records.
The next day, jail officials confiscated Henley’s cell phone. Anderson was arrested the same day at Ontario International Airport delivering a bag of heroin to an undercover agent, and Washington and two others were later arrested in Detroit.
Anderson, who had worked at the detention center since February 1994, was put on paid administrative leave by jail officials Friday, said Linda Thomas, a center spokeswoman. He had no prior record of problems, she said.
Detention center Warden W.H. Seifert and Associate Warden Lee Vaughn refused to answer questions about the arrests.
It was the second time since March that a guard at the Los Angeles center had been charged with aiding an inmate by smuggling a cellular phone into the jail. In the previous case, a 10-year corrections veteran pleaded guilty to charges related to supplying a cellular phone, fax machine, small computer, electrical cords and drugs to a prisoner for a fee.
Thomas said that “with more than 300 employees, it’s unfortunate that things like this do happen. . . . We have to have some trust in our employees. We don’t want to have to search every employee.”
Defense attorney Irene P. Ayala, appointed to represent Anderson during his bail hearing, said the alleged murder-for-hire plots are found nowhere in the criminal complaint filed against her client.
“We were blindsided, yes,” Ayala said. “It was out of the blue. They’ve offered no evidence. It doesn’t appear in any of the documents. . . . It’s unfair to [Anderson].”
Harris said he brought up the issue of the plots only after Anderson’s attorney pushed to have the jail guard released from custody. At a hearing for Henley earlier in the day, Harris did not raise the issue of any murders for hire.
Henley was convicted March 29, 1995, of conspiring to run an interstate cocaine trafficking ring. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in a federal prison. Convicted with him were his uncle and three other co-defendants who were supplying the cocaine or helping prepare it for shipment from Henley’s Brea home to Atlanta and Memphis.
Before Henley could be sentenced for that conviction, his attorneys filed motions demanding a new trial, alleging juror misconduct and raising issues of possible attempts to bribe a juror.
Henley had been held without bail at the detention center while his attorneys and federal prosecutors wrangled over the retrial motion.
That motion was pending before Judge Taylor when prosecutors secured a guilty plea from one of the excused jurors in the case who said he conspired with Henley to bribe a sitting juror to vote not guilty.
When the bribery scheme fell through, the excused juror, Michael D. Malachowski of San Bernardino, said he then conspired with Henley to fabricate allegations of jury tampering to help Henley win a new trial.
Malachowski pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for offering a $50,000 bribe--on Henley’s behalf, he said--to get one member of Henley’s jury to plead not guilty. Malachowski has yet to be sentenced for his crime.