Federal Retrial of Narcotics Agent Turned Over to Jury

A federal jury on Wednesday began deliberating the fate of state narcotics agent Richard Wayne Parker of San Juan Capistrano, who is being retried on allegations that he stole 295 kilos of cocaine from his Riverside office’s evidence locker to sell through a network of distributors.

Jurors got the case after Assistant U.S. Atty. Beverly Reid O’Connell made closing arguments accusing Parker of being “a sworn law enforcement officer who stepped over the line.”

O’Connell focused on the $600,000 in cash that investigators found in Parker’s home and vehicles, including $7,000 discovered in a sunglasses case and $284,000 found in the trunk of Parker’s 1968 Camaro.

“The man had narcotics proceeds everywhere,” said O’Connell, adding that they were “narcotics proceeds for a very successful narcotics trafficker.”

But Parker’s defense attorney, Richard A. Hamar, told the jurors in Los Angeles federal court that his client, a 21-year law enforcement veteran, had never stolen or distributed cocaine.

Hamar argued that Parker was never caught with cocaine, and that the only direct evidence linking the agent to drug trafficking was the testimony of his former girlfriend, Monica L. Pitto, an admitted drug dealer.

Hamar said Parker was holding large amounts of cash for Pitto, a former private investment banker. He maintained that Parker believed the money was legitimately derived from his girlfriend’s activities, which at times included holding large amounts of cash for wealthy foreign clients.

Parker was arrested in July 1998. Parker was tried on drug-related charges last spring, but jurors deadlocked on the most serious conspiracy and drug-trafficking charges.

That jury also acquitted Parker of cocaine possession and money laundering, but convicted him of filing a false tax return.