Former Narcotics Agent Convicted in Drug Case

In a striking reversal, a Los Angeles federal jury Thursday swiftly convicted former state narcotics agent Richard Wayne Parker of conspiracy and selling cocaine--crimes of which he was nearly acquitted in June.

Both charges were related to Parker’s alleged theft of 650 pounds of cocaine from a Riverside evidence locker in July 1997. He was never charged with that theft or caught with any cocaine.

The verdict Thursday was stunning for its speed: It took jurors less than two hours to find Parker guilty.

In June, federal jurors deadlocked on the same drug trafficking and conspiracy charges against Parker, 44. That jury voted 10 to 1 in favor of acquittal.

Jurors in the second trial got the case Wednesday about 4 p.m., met for less than an hour, then went home. On Thursday morning, they returned, deliberated for less than an hour again, then told the judge they had a verdict.

This apparently left little time for jurors to review the hours of testimony, reams of documents and hundreds of exhibits presented in the eight-day retrial.

But jury foreman Roderick Blair said afterward that the strongest evidence against Parker was the nearly $600,000 in cash that was found in his home and garage.

Some of the money was bound in Hawaiian bank wrappers, which a low-level drug dealer linked to Parker said he used to wrap cash payments for cocaine.

Jurors found the money wrappers especially convincing evidence, Blair said.

Parker’s defense attorney, Richard A. Hamar, said he was “shocked and disappointed” at the verdicts, “especially over how quickly they came back.”

“If 12 people were going to find someone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, they should have had more to talk about,” Hamar said.

“This jury was in a track meet to get out of there,” he added.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Beverly Reid O’Connell, the lead prosecutor in the case, said she believed “justice was served.”

Handed a setback in June, federal prosecutors regrouped and presented a drastically pared-down case this time, O’Connell said.

As in the first trial, most of the prosecution’s evidence was circumstantial. Only the testimony of Parker’s former girlfriend, Monica L. Pitto, directly linked Parker to cocaine sales. Pitto, an admitted drug dealer, named Parker as her cocaine source.

Defense lawyers argued that Pitto’s testimony was not credible, and that she had cut a deal with prosecutors and falsely accused Parker to reduce her own sentence.

Jury foreman Blair said jurors knew Pitto’s testimony was flawed but did not entirely discount it.

“I think Pitto was trying to save her life, trying to reduce her sentence,” Blair said. “I didn’t believe her story was complete, but that didn’t lead to the fact that we weren’t going to convict him.”

Blair also said the fact that Parker was never caught with cocaine initially bothered two of the jurors, who nevertheless ultimately voted to convict.

Parker, a 21-year law enforcement officer with no prior convictions, now faces a sentence of 10 years to life. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 19.