No Bail for Drug Agent Accused of Dealing

A state narcotics agent charged with drug trafficking lost a bid for release on bail from federal jail Friday even though the wife he wronged apparently was willing to help out.

The case involving Richard Wayne Parker of San Clemente case has been marked by acrimony with his wife, Diane, who learned during a court hearing that he was having an affair for the past year and paying for the other woman’s $1,000-a-month Newport Beach apartment.

Diane Parker subsequently was charged with assault and battery after allegedly attacking the woman she believed was her husband’s paramour.

But at Friday’s hearing in Los Angeles, Diane Parker, 42, a retired Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was present and her husband’s lawyer said she was willing to testify in his bid for release.

His new attorney, Everett Bobbitt of San Diego, asked that Parker be released on $100,000 bond.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Beverly Reid O’Connell called the figure “simply ludicrous” in light of the fact that Parker had stashed $600,000 in alleged drug profits. Bobbitt said all of the money is now in government custody.

Parker and four others were arrested in July after a search of several homes turned up about 26 pounds of cocaine and about $285,000. Drug-sniffing dogs also indicated there were traces of cocaine in Parker’s truck, FBI agents said.

O’Connell said that, though some of the co-defendants have been released, “he is in a different position. He was the source of their supply.”

As for an offer by Diane Parker to say that her husband’s possession of a card from the Grand Cayman Islands was nothing sinister and was from a vacation they took together, the prosecutor was unimpressed.

“She didn’t know what this man was doing,” O’Connell said. “He had multiple residences and a paramour. There is nothing to suggest this man would not flee, and he is a danger to the community.”

Parker did not speak during Friday’s hearing.

U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder refused the request to release him but said she would reconsider later if he gets a favorable report from pretrial services. Even so, she said, she would demand a much higher bail than his lawyer suggested and would place him under home electronic monitoring.

Parker is charged with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.