LETTERS

RUSSELL WEBSTER

SPEAKS OUT

WHEN MY 6-year-old son was run over and killed in front of my home by a driver who was drinking and speeding, I was surprised when the driver did not receive even a ticket.

When my 17-year-old brother was killed by the Houston police and a gun was planted on his body, I was surprised when not one of the 15 officers who participated in the killing and the cover-up did not spend a night in jail.

I was not surprised when agents of the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] and the FBI arrested me August 6 on cocaine charges; I had been involved with coke. But when 1 found I was charged with being the “kingpin” of a continuing criminal enterprise.. .I was not only surprised-I was overwhelmed!

Dick DeGuerin, my attorney.. .showed me an affidavit prepared by the DEA and the FBI outlining their investigation of me during the past nine months.

The affidavit’s “accurate and reliable information” included:

1. I had been an unemployed coke dealer since March 1979.

2. I was selling 8 to 10 pounds of cokeper month.

3. I had used coke [revenues] for a substantial down payment on my house andhad forged W-2s to finance the balance.

4. I had $500,000 “stashed” to flee thecountry if I was ever caught.

The many other statements sworn to in the affidavit are too numerous to list, but all are on public record and were shown to contain gross exaggerations or complete misrepresentation of the facts.

After hearing David Marlboro’s testimony (which did not support the statements alleged to him in the affidavit), and after seeing the grand jury testimony of Jim McDonald (the government key witness who was scheduled to testify in the trial the following week), Judge Jerry Buchmeyer released me on bond because of his concern that the government’s own witnesses did not support the affidavit on which he had relied heavily to set the provisions of my bond [originally $1 million].

It is important to note that this was before other government witnesses established:

1. I had legitimately earned more than$300,000 during the period in questionand had paid $77,000 in taxes.

2. I had bought 2 pounds of coke-not 8 to 10 pounds per month -in all of1982….

3. My house was bought and financedcompletely honestly.

4. Judge Buchmeyer had heard enoughbefore the above was established to release me on bond, finding that I did nothave $500,000 and I had not said I wouldleave the country if 1 was caught….

In December of 1981, a case had already been made [against] me by the DEA from which they could reasonably expect a 40-year sentence. Knowing this and the above fact brought out in a trial that lasted six weeks, the question that must be asked is:

What are the motives of local DEA and FBI agents who spent millions of dollars of taxpayers’ monies plus nine months of agents’ time trying to prove a continuing criminal enterprise case against me? Would you suspect that it might be because a conviction on a continuing criminal enterprise charge -the toughest charge on the federal books with the toughest penalty -also carries the biggest feather for the cap of the local FBI and DEA agents who land “the fish”? Would you suspect that after they publicized the landing of the “big fish” that they would suppress evidence and withhold witnesses that would prove very embarrassing to them and their case?

Russell Webster

Dallas