Scandal - Caught in the Drug War crossfire: the tragedy of Rachel Hoffman

[aerozeppelin123]

Caught in the Drug War crossfire: the tragedy of Rachel Hoffman

Rachel Hoffman had just graduated from Florida State University, with plans to attend culinary school. As an undergrad, she was popular among her group of friends, many of whom she met through her involvement in FSU’s chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Like many college students, she shared cannabis/marijuana with her friends, and would often “go in” on larger amounts in order to save money. And that’s how she got busted.


Rachel was threatened with prison time, then promised a slap on the wrist if she agreed to wear a wire and set up a deal with her suppliers. Tallahassee police gave her $13,000 in cash and told her to purchase 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine, and a handgun. They never informed her attorney, family, or the state prosecutor before they sent Rachel into the lions’ den that day. And nobody had the chance to tell her she was in way over her head.

After police found Rachel’s body, they held a press conference to blame her for her own death. Among Rachel’s family and friends, sadness quickly turned into outrage and action. Last Wednesday, hundreds of students marched in protest of the role the Tallahassee Police Department played in Rachel’s death. They held signs that read “Who Killed Rachel?” and “No More Drug War” while wearing t-shirts they had gotten from SSDP and other allied organizations at our last international conference. In her memory, Rachel's mother has established the Rachel Morningstar Foundation, the goal of which is to pass a law requiring legal advice to be sought before a civilian can consent to undercover work. Beyond that, it will also work to decriminalize marijuana in Florida.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good article, time to start paying more attention to the innocent victims of this stupid drug war.
	That's messed up, thanks for sharing.
	good
	Thanks for the news story

[umbra1010]

A sad story that will hopefully open peoples eyes.

[Heretic.Ape.]

Absolutely tragic.

[sterling77]

This stuff is horrible

[ihavequestions]

thats insanity. it leaves you kinda speechless realy. i mean if your gonna send in a girl, ALONE, with 13 thousand, and to buy a gun with 1,500 E pills and 2 ounces of coke? i mean thats crazy what did they think was gonna happen? her suppliers clearly must have known right off the bat that a regular pot buyer is out of nowhere gonna buy this outrageous amount of stuff then something is obviousely up.

this was most definetly some of the most horrible police work i have ever heard of. and it ended is a needless death of a person who wasnt even bad.

[Nargyle]

WTF!!!!??? This is really tragic, just to know what kind of things police do in order to continue with this stupid drug war makes me really sad and outraged! Police should, supposedly, keep people safe not put them in dangerous situations where they might get killed like this poor girl!

[Lunar Loops]

And then the sickest insult of all to then try and turn around and tell a grieving family that it was all her own fault anyway for first getting involved in drugs.

Yes, the police have really covered their backs with glory this time.....what is even more galling is that none of them will ever get into any trouble over this when in effect they have been complicit in her murder.

[Panthers007]

In the town of Rockland, Massachusetts, back in the 1970's, the kids and young adults had had enough abuse from "their" police.

First they burned down the police chief's house and the fire chief's house. Then they took to the rooftops with rifles and started sniping police cars. Every last cop quickly left town. It took the National Guard several weeks to restore order. No charges were ever filed. None of the former police ever returned to Rockland. A new, progressive police force was installed. Peace in the valley.

This is merely a history lesson - not a suggestion. But an organized taxpayer's revolt, on the other hand...

[sterling77]

Yea the police blamed the girl on top of it all. The stories on national news weren't accurate either.

Haha funny aside about Rockland..I lived there for quite awhile back in yonder years on a wharf. Never heard that story though!

[Panthers007]

Are you sure you don't mean Rockport?

[sterling77]

Wow yes yes I meant Rockport...sorry I'm really tired. I guess that's why I never heard the story! lol

[zera]

I found a picture of Officer Donutmuncher McDipshit in action

Reputation Comments on this post:

bad off topic nonsense

[Nargyle]

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter...t_prohibition/

Rachel Hoffman is dead. Rachel Hoffman, like many young adults, occasionally smoked marijuana.

But Rachel Hoffman is not dead as a result of smoking marijuana; she is dead as a result of marijuana prohibition.

Under prohibition, Rachel faced up to five years in a Florida prison for possessing a small amount of marijuana. (Under state law, violators face up to a $5,000 fine and five years in prison for possession of more than 20 grams of pot.)

Under prohibition, the police in Rachel's community viewed the 23-year-old recent college graduate as nothing more than a criminal and threatened her with jail time unless she cooperated with them as an untrained, unsupervised confidential informant. Her assignment: Meet with two men she'd never met and purchase a large quantity of cocaine, ecstasy and a handgun. Rachel rendezvoused with the two men; they shot and killed her.

Under prohibition, the law enforcement officers responsible for brazenly and arrogantly placing Rachel in harm's way have failed to publicly express any remorse -- because, after all, under prohibition Rachel Hoffman was no longer a human being deserving of such sympathies.

Speaking on camera to ABC News' "20/20" last week, Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones attempted to justify his department's callous and irresponsible behavior, stating, "My job as a police chief is to find these criminals in our community and to take them off the streets (and) to make the proper arrest."

But in Rachel Hoffman's case, she was not taken "off the streets," and police made no such arrest -- probably because, deep down, even they know that people like Rachel pose no imminent threat to the public. Instead, the officers on the scene secretly cut a deal with Rachel: They told her that they would not file charges if she agreed to go undercover.

Rachel became the bait; the Tallahassee police force went trolling for sharks.

In the weeks preceding Rachel's murder, police told her to remain tight-lipped about their backroom agreement -- and with good reason. The cops' on-the-spot deal with Rachel flagrantly violated Tallahassee Police Department protocol, which mandated that such an arrangement must first gain formal approval from the state prosecutor's office. Knowing that the office would likely not sign off on their deal -- Rachel was already enrolled in a drug court program from a prior pot possession charge, and cooperating with the TPD as a drug informant would be in violation of her probation -- the police simply decided to move forward with their informal arrangement and not tell anybody.

"(In) hindsight, would it have been a good idea to let the state attorney know? Yes," Jones feebly told "20/20." Damn right it would have been; Rachel Hoffman would still be alive.

But don't expect Jones or any of the other officers who violated the department's code of conduct -- violations that resulted in the death of another human being -- to face repercussions for their actions. Obeying the rules is merely "a good idea" for those assigned with enforcing them. On the other hand, for people like Rachel, violating those rules can be a death sentence.

Of course, to those of us who work in marijuana law reform, we witness firsthand every day the adverse consequences wrought by marijuana prohibition -- a policy that has led to the arrest of nearly 10 million young people since 1990. To us, the sad tale of Rachel Hoffman marks neither the beginning nor the end of our ongoing efforts to bring needed "reefer sanity" to America's criminal justice system. It is simply another chapter in the ongoing and tragic saga that is marijuana prohibition.

[~lostgurl~]

Video - ABC 20/20 Special On Police Informant Killed In Drug War

[Spare Chaynge]

Doing a quick search swim was unable to find anything about this rockland riot if swiy can help please put a link.

[chillinwill]

here's an update on this situation from http://www.mysuncoast.com/Global/sto...av=menu577_2_1

Associated Press - September 25, 2008 2:44 PM ET
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - An investigator has been fired and four other Tallahassee police officers were suspended without pay for two weeks for their roles in a botched drug sting that led to the death of a young informant.
Additionally, Police Chief Dennis Jones and his top deputy, John Proctor, received formal reprimands.
Jones said Thursday that the four suspended officers will be reassigned upon their return to work. He also noted violations of department policy involving drug buy & bust policies as well as the use of cash in such operations.
A grand jury found police undercover operations negligent in the death of 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman, who was killed in the aborted sting in May. Two people were indicted on first-degree murder charges.

[dpayne]

There is also ultimetally a lesson to be learned here aswell to alot of people. The reason swim walked away from the whole scene was kids that when swim was their age hadnt seen let alone started to think about trying were talking and asking for prices on large quantities of substances and swim couldnt stress how serious a crime such things are regardess as and how risky such deals can turn out being. Going in on trafficable amounts of substances is not a healthy habbit to get into. Then to accept such a deal and rat on people, the story teaches a few lessons ironically.... Know what your getting urself involved in before its to late and your dead.

What a country America must be to live in if the police will take a MJ offender and throw em into the lions den of A) Narcotics B) Illegal Guns
This case is legit or some propaganda/ wet dream? was swims first thoughts then he realised oh thats America gotter be true.

[Beeker]

This pissed a lot of people off.

Even in Texas a 1/4 pound of weed isn't considered a Felony anymore and Texas is a shitty drug law state. Getting caught with 100 pounds in Texas isn't even a year of jail time. It's a Felony drug conviction sure, but not anything worth risking your life over.

People who hustle know their customers and people don't go from less then a pound of weed and 6 pills of MDMA to 1,500 X tablets, coke ... and a gun?! wtf would she need a gun for?

IMHO the gun part is what got her killed. A college grad female pot smoker could easily get a friend to buy her a gun in America. She didn't even have a real Felony conviction and could have purchased a gun herself.

"Up to 4 years in prison" is what they said she was looking at. I was looking at up to 55 years on an 11 count Federal indictment ONE year ago. I did 9 months.

[dpayne]

In all aspects of reality it was most definetally the gun part that got her killed, since it was the gun she had requested to purchase under instruction from the officers which was used to murder her as the case reads...

Why would police want to put a maurijuana dealer into such heavy quantities that most small time narcotics dealers know is high risky and stear clear of such quantities straight up and then introduce a firearm by request into the scenario is ridiculous.

A complete revamp of the ethics/ rules/ regulations would be underway if this happend in oz as to if informers can ever be used again and then stipulate only of transactions no bigger than X times previous deals and under no circumstances can different sunstance be requested or firearms etc

Are they testing the character of people willing to get ounce quanties and 1000s of narcotics by looking for firearms?

How can anyone let alone law enfourcement create a market for blackmarket firearms by even asking for it. Wouldnt a simple if you want I a gun its 500cash be enough and the informer to think about it. Then after the narcotics bust a decision to pursue firearms and more narcs be a much better option if this is the road to be wanderd down.

Sorry but swiD still doubts the legitemacy even after all the attention....

[Beeker]

Originally Posted by dpayne

Are they testing the character of people willing to get ounce quanties and 1000s of narcotics by looking for firearms?

How can anyone let alone law enfourcement create a market for blackmarket firearms by even asking for it. Wouldnt a simple if you want I a gun its 500cash be enough and the informer to think about it. Then after the narcotics bust a decision to pursue firearms and more narcs be a much better option if this is the road to be wanderd down.

Sorry but swiD still doubts the legitemacy even after all the attention....

Adding the firearm into the mix was a "numbers" move.

In the US the 1,500 pills and coke wouldn't have been enough to put away one person outside a drug conspiracy for more then a decade plus a little change.

The gun would have added a 10 year mandatory minimum charge plus 10 years for each bullet in the gun.

Sad thing is - the police got more then they needed to lock the drug dealers up for a long long time. Great police work there!

[dpayne]

Far Out!~ to put it nicely....

Is that each bullet in the gun part a litle bit of a stir or for real?
US doesnt even have strict gun control in oz they recalled everyones weapons with a mandatory hand in of all automatic firearms.

BB guns or paintball guns are hard enough to get a permit for....

SwiD can see the polices eagerness now to effectivelly double such criminals times behind bars but ultimetally it may of well been the first gun any of the three had seen.... Unlikelly but possible

[runitsthepolice]

Swim attends florida state. He can say that after speaking with both campus police and TPD investigators that they allege that they did nothing wrong and it was her fault. The drug war is bullshit, it forces good people who get caught to "rat" on each other and as we see with this case it can cost lives. One fsupd investigator even admitted that she has seen her fellow officers plant evidence on suspects when they "knew" they were committing crimes but could not prove it.

The cops here do what they want. Even when they shit the bed on an investigation they can't admit that they were wrong. Swim wouldn't be surprised if several of the cops didn't care about this girl's life because she was a drug user. Swim hopes they get their shit ruined for this one. Some asshole pulled a gun on swim's roommate on the road by his apartment the other day. Two nights ago 4 gunshots were fired at the apartment complex behind his. Cops need to handle that, drugs should be the least of their concerns.

Swim was watching the news and they mentioned something about an investigator being fired and a few others being suspended as a result of this case. Can anyone locate this news update?

[chillinwill]

A news update on this from http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n902/a03.html?1042

Pubdate: Sun, 28 Sep 2008
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2008 Tallahassee Democrat
Author: Nic Corbett, Democrat Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE POLICE CHIEF DEFENDS FIRING DECISION IN RACHEL HOFFMAN CASE

Tallahassee police Chief Dennis Jones is defending his decision to fire only one investigator and not higher-ranking officers over the botched drug sting that led to Rachel Hoffman's death.

Investigator Ryan Pender, who recruited Hoffman as a confidential drug informant, was fired last week. Four more senior officers were suspended for two weeks without pay. Jones was reprimanded by City Manager Anita Favors Thompson, and Deputy Chief John Proctor was reprimanded by Jones.

Jones said, "People are going to second guess that. To some people, it might look like I sacrificed him and protected his superiors. ... Some people say we all should be fired."

But judging from what happened, "the level of responsibility fell on ( Pender )," Jones said.

Hoffman, a recent Florida State University graduate, became a confidential informant after officers found drugs in her apartment in April.

Pender knew that on Hoffman's first day as an informant, she told a person she'd been planning to bust that she was working with police. Pender also knew that Hoffman had contacted suspects on her own. All were violations of policies that Pender was responsible for knowing.

"( Pender ) convinced his superiors she would still be able to do what she was supposed to do," Jones said.

But Pender didn't tell his supervisors all of those problems with Hoffman, Jones said. The 23-year-old was likable, and Pender wanted to help her stay out of jail.

"He is a victim, too," he said. "I think we all are."

William Gaut, a former police captain in Alabama, said he would more than likely fire the supervisor instead of the officer if the supervisor knew what was going on but did nothing to stop it.

In that case, "the supervisor is effectively telling the officer what you're doing is OK," he said.

Capt. Chris Connell, one of the suspended officers, told internal-affairs investigators at the Tallahassee Police Department he doesn't normally look into an informant's background when going over drug-bust plans. He told them he trusts the officers, who work with the informants, and the officers' direct supervisors, who monitor that. He said he didn't know about Hoffman until the day of the bust.

"Nobody said to me, 'We've got a problem with this girl; we want to use her anyway,'" he said, according to an internal-affairs report released Thursday.

Both Sgt. David Odom and Lt. Taltha White, whose ranks are under Connell, admitted they knew at least some of the mistakes Hoffman had made, but they continued to use her anyway, according to the report.

"But she didn't try to hide it from Pender," White said about Hoffman. "She told Pender exactly what happened ... And so I didn't think it took away from her credibility."

Although he was the supervisor of the bust that led to Hoffman's death, Sgt. Rod Looney said he didn't know about the problems. He said he would've expected Pender to tell him.

"A lot of stuff I found out after the fact," Looney said in the report. "So I didn't know about it, and by that time, it's too late. I am already knee-deep in it."

On May 7, Hoffman drove alone in her Volvo to Forestmeadows Park in northeast Tallahassee, where she was to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine and a gun from two men with $13,000 in recorded bills.

She wore a wire and talked to Pender on her iPhone. Police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents lost sight of her. She was found two days later shot to death in Taylor County.

Pender was primarily responsible for keeping an eye on her during the bust, Connell said in the report.

A Leon County grand jury that examined the Hoffman case on Aug. 1 indicted Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, and Andrea Green, 25, on murder and robbery charges and issued a scathing critique of police and the DEA. The grand jurors were instructed in negligence law and could've pursued criminal charges against the officers involved, but no such indictment was returned.

"That issue was before the grand jury, and there was no indictment," said State Attorney Willie Meggs.

Meggs had no comment about whether the punishment of the TPD officers was appropriate.

Pender, a police officer for seven and a half years, was given written notification of his firing Friday, said his lawyer, Paul Villeneuve.

"We are reviewing all of our options at this point, but I would say it's highly likely that we will file a grievance and seek appellate relief," he said. "He's exceptionally disappointed. He loved police work, and he wants to continue serving his community."

Pender's law-enforcement certification won't be under review unless his "moral character" is in question. If he simply violated agency policy, TPD won't have to send its internal-affairs report to the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Heather Smith, an FDLE spokeswoman.

Senior writer Jennifer Portman contributed to this report.

[fiveleggedrat]

Whoever planned this out obviously has no idea how the drug market works. I would have actually been surprised to hear about this going sucessfully. How many young, college females purchase that type of order? And with a gun? That's just asking to make people suspicious.

You don't walk up to a window and go "Ill take 1500 beans, 2 oz coke, and a .45, plz".

[Figaro]

The worse part of the whole deal is that after everything was done and she was dead, the cops actually tried to blamed it on her. It was all her fault for not following procedure. Like she went to cop school or Informant school.

She was probrably nervous as hell and was cought. She was never volunteer to be an informant, she was intimidated and coerce into that position.