Drug Agent to Be Retried in Cocaine Theft Case

Veteran state narcotics agent Richard Parker will be retried on charges of stealing 650 pounds of cocaine from an evidence locker and selling it piecemeal through a former girlfriend, the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday.

The government’s decision to retry Parker followed a stunning rebuff two weeks ago when a jury voted 10 to 1 to acquit him on four charges related to the theft from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in Riverside.

The lone holdout forced a judge to declare a mistrial on one count of conspiracy and three counts of possessing narcotics for sale. The jury voted unanimously to acquit Parker, 44, on two other counts of possessing narcotics for sale and another charge of money laundering. But it convicted Parker of filing a false tax return for 1997.

The judge set a meeting for next week to schedule a new trial date.

The income tax conviction, a felony, proved to be a stumbling block to Parker’s release on bond Tuesday. He has been held without bail since his arrest on July 2, 1998.

At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder, Assistant U.S. Atty. Beverly Reid O’Connell noted that because Parker was convicted of a felony, the burden of proof fell to him to show that he is not a flight risk or a threat to the community.

“He has not done that,” she told the judge, who agreed.

Defense lawyer Richard A. Hamar said he would appeal Snyder’s ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Parker was accused in the previous trial of stealing the cocaine during a faked burglary over the July 4, 1997, weekend at the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in Riverside, where he worked. He did not become a suspect until a year later when he was arrested in an unrelated FBI drug sting.

Agents intercepted him as he drove out of a parking structure after receiving $47,000 in cash from his former girlfriend, Monica L. Pitto, 40, of Hermosa Beach.