May/June 1996
Michael Levine, Prison Life
The attorney represented Donald Carlson, a 45-year-old executive for a Fortune 500 computer company. A paramilitary assault team of Customs, DEA, BATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms], and Border Patrol agents had invaded Carlson's suburban San Diego home using flash-bang grenades and automatic weapons. One of the invading feds did a Rambo roll, firing 15 rounds from his submachine gun, hitting everything in Carlson's foyer but Carlson. Other agents hit their mark: Carlson was shot three times and arrived at the hospital in critical condition. The team had executed a search warrant based on the uncorroborated, uninvestigated word of a professional rat.
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Miraculously, despite the best efforts of this newly formed suburban assault squad, Carlson had survived. He wanted to sue the government.
'We'd like to retain you as our consultant,' said the attorney, a soft-spoken, thoughtful man with an impeccable reputation for integrity.
I immediately started poring over the reports and statements. It was one of the most frightening examples of out-of-control, almost comically inept federal law enforcement I had ever seen or heard of in my career.
The federal grapevine must have been buzzing. I was contacted by cops and agents who wanted to see some of these guys go to jail. One of them sent me a copy of a congressional report he thought might be helpful, on hearings chaired by Congressman John Conyers Jr.
The title of the report tells its story: Serious Mismanagement and Misconduct in the Treasury Department, Customs Service and Other Federal Agencies and the Adequacy of Efforts to Hold Agency Officials Accountable.
The hearings not only found evidence of all of the above, they also found there was 'a perception of cover-up' in these federal agencies for all their misdeeds. Although this report was issued within months of the Carlson shooting, the killings at Ruby Ridge, and the massacre at Waco, Texas, it went virtually ignored by the media.
A couple of days into my work on the Carlson case I got a call from Miguel's attorney. The jury had found him guilty of attempted possession of cocaine. The charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. The attorney said he was appealing the conviction. The CI, in the meantime, was paid whatever he'd been promised and was probably off selling more cases. Even I had to admit that it was a good living. I hung up feeling like shit.
Weeks later, after I had submitted a report to Carlson's attorney recommending that the agents and prosecutors involved in the case be fired and prosecuted, I was full of hope. A rat cannot be king unless the people who are supposed to control him become as immoral and corrupt as he is, and I was going for their throats. The Carlson case would be the example of what was going wrong all across the country that all Americans should see.
Miguel's attorney called me again. 'The judge reversed himself. He's granted a new trial on the basis that Miguel should have had an entrapment defense. Will you be available to testify?'
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