lnvestigator Watson advised he was present at Ms. Rachel Hoffman's residence,
located at 2626 East Park Avenue, number 16303, on April 17, 2008, during the
issuance of the search warrant. lnvestigator Watson recalled illegal drugs being
present in the apartment and probable cause existing for Ms. Rachel Hoffman's
arrest. According to lnvestigator Watson, Ms. Hoffman was not criminally
charged because she was provided the opportunity to work for the Tallahassee
Police Department as a confidential informant (CI).
On April 18, 2008, Ms Rachel Hoffman came to the Tallahassee Police
Department to complete her confidential informant paperwork (packet). Present
during the interview was lnvestigator Ryan Pender (the case agent) and
lnvestigator Gary Watson. lnvestigator Watson stated that Ms. Hoffman was
read her Miranda Rights and afforded the opportunity to call her attorney.
According to lnvestigator Watson, Ms. Hoffman did not call her attorney because
she did not like him. He stated, "She was afforded that opportunity but her
comment was she did not like her attorney because she thought he was kind of
geekish, kind of weird, she didn't like him." (Page 14:6-9)
According to lnvestigator Watson, Ms. Hoffrn;ll~ ur~uerstood the game of drugs.
"...But once she started talking about the deal that she was going to make, it was
clear to me that she understood the game of drugs and as we express it, say the
game. She was very well versed in the language and how to work the deal ..."
stated lnvestigator Watson, (Page 17:9-13). "She was very fluid in using street
language in terms of describing the drugs, quantities, dollar amounts, things like
I that," recalled lnvestigator Watson (Page 24:19-21). He continued, "The only - I
can express it this way. Me being from a very rough neighborhood growing up
and her jargon would have been very consistent with someone from a very rough
neighborhood who knew the drug game," (Page 24:24 - Page25:2).
When asked if Ms. Hoffman volunteered to purchase MDMA, lnvestigator
Watson advised, "She would have had to," (Page 17:25 - Page 18:2). He also
advised she would have been the one to bring up the firearm. "I believe she
brought that up because we had no reason to believe that there was anything
about a firearm anywhere," (Page 18:3-6).
lnvestigator Watson did not recall a discussion about Drug Court during the
meeting. He stated, "I don't remember Drug Court coming up in that because
normally it's a probation and I don't remember anything from Drug Court coming
up," (Page 20:14-18).
But I do know that she informed us on that time that her
neighbors who were out there that day saw what was happening and the reason
.) did not do the deal was because someone had already t o l d that we
busted her and that she was working for us. And ~ n ~ u ~ ~ o s e d l ~ supposedly confronted her
with that. And one of the things was **** came in and said, hey, you know, I will
Page 9 ends here (this are PDF page numbers which fall behind report page numbers)
Page 10 Begins (you may note there appears to be a significant gap here with no indication of redaction)
Investigator Watson was present at the meeting on April 21, 2008, with Ms.
Hoffman, and Investigator Pender. He stated, "Yeah, I was present when was talking
about~would work off the charges and they were
trying to work out whatever the situation between the two of them, in terms of the
and Hoffman, for what she was going to do for &. And I was like - - we
like, hey, that's not what we here for," (Page 26:16). lnvestigator Watson
a reed the conversation was stopped aboutwhat she was going to do for-
a
Investigator Miller
lnvestigator Miller advised he got involved in the investigation involving Ms.
Hoffman at the request of lnvestigator Pender. He said he sat in on control
phone calls she was making to suspect "m He, however, could not recall the
exact date of the phone calls.
lnvestigator Miller said he knew a couple of days prior to May 7, 2008, the
operation was going to occur. He said Ms. Hoffman made numerous attempts
(on May 5, 2008) to contact W by telephone at the but the
attempts were unsuccessful. He stated, "So, it was discussed with investigator Pender and
and a decision was made to put on Hoffman and have her go up to place of
business I believe where
i at that point I believe she met withu-1" (Page 1 7:16-20).
Page 11 ends
Page 12 begins
He recalled the "meet and greet" lasting for approximately 20 minutes. He could
not remember the exact details of the conversation but advised it was recorded.
From what he did recall, Ms. Hoffman seemed comfortable speaking with
' and in control of what she was saying. "From what I remember, he
basically assured that he could get the drugs that she was wanting. I don't
remember the finite details of it, but it sounded good. We left it thinking yes, that
he was going to be able to get us those particular drugs," said lnvestigator Miller
(Page 18-20-24).
According to lnvestigator Miller the suspect "m was not identified between the
time frame of April 22,2008, and before the May 7, 2008 operation occurred at 6
PM.
We skip some stuff here and move on to
lnvestigator Miller advised he was a part of the primary arrest team for the May
7th operation. From what he recalled from the operational plan, Forest Meadows
Park was not mentioned. He recalled the Wal-Mart (5500 Thornasville Road)
a n d a s the buy locations listed in the plan.
We skip more and move to page 13
Here we are going to excerpt from the obvious
According to lnvestigator Miller after the briefing was over, no one knew exactly
where the buy-bust was to occur. He stated, "We - had the general location.
We wanted it on Thomasville, the Wal-Mart. However, I think we were going to
have a better idea once - an actual finalized location once more phone calls
were made, which is actually very common," (Page 26:6-12).
When asked if lnvestigator Pender allowed the suspects to pick the buy location,
lnvestigator Miller answered, "I don't know. You have to ask him, lnvestigator
Pender that," (Page 28:lO-13).
'We were informed by units that were already in it (Forest Meadows Park)
that a possible suspect vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle
was already there so we set up in a position to where we could try to see it. We
couldn't see if from where we were at," said lnvestigator Miller (Page 29:3-7).
lnvestigator Miller advised no one ran the license plate of the vehicle to try and
identify whom the car belonged to.
He stated, "...I
believe Rachel Hoffman pulled into the first entrance off Meridian to the park,
which is south of the main entrance in the parking lot where we wanted her to go.
And somehow in there, I don't know, 1 didn't see any of it, she had pulled back
out and was supposed to come to our location - - or go to our location and return,
which she never did," (Page 29:16-23).
lnvestigator Miller said he never saw Ms. Hoffr nan er iter Forest Meadows Park.
The interview was concluded at I :30 PM.
Investigator Corbitt was interviewed which picks up on page 14. This part is heavily blacked out.
Later in the interview lnvestigator Corbitt was asked to further explain what
training is necessary to be a "superuser" in regards to surveillance equipment.
1 He stated, "There is not a designated standard that someone satisfies to become
a superuser. It is based on a selection by the sergeant for who will participate,
the desire of that person to participate, and then the additional training that is
provided." (page 352-6)
Approx. a paragraph is blacked out apparently referring to equipment they "no longer have" Page 16 is also heavily blacked out but appears to be a discussion of the operations and strategies for setting up monitoring equipment.
We skip to Investigator Tucker describing procedure for documenting CI's.
According to Officer Tucker, it is the investigator's
responsibility to do the background check on potential Cls. This background
check includes a criminal history check. Officer Tucker stated, "Obviously we
check JIS and FCIC." (page 155) Officer Tucker stated pretrial release and
Page 18
diversion programs such as the Drug Court program are not an issue when
enlisting a CI.
The rules of confidential informants (CI) are to follow were discussed with Officer
Tucker. According to Officer Tucker, the list is "pretty comprehensive as far as
telling them what to do, what they're not allowed to do and such." (page I1 :22-
24)
Officer Tucker was asked if was against the rules for a CI to discuss their work
with the Tallahassee Police Department with another suspect, one they're
attempting to "set up". He stated, "Yes." (page 12:4) Later in the interview he
stated this would be cause for him to dismiss the CI. (page 19:3)
Officer Tucker was asked about a situation where one CI paid another CI to work
for Vice and for that work to count towards the first Cl's substantial assistance.
Officer Tucker was asked if he would have a problem with that. He stated,
"Yeah. I just - no, I don't - again, I'm sort of a stickler as far as, I don't like Cls. I
don't trust Cls. I don't like using Cls. I kept them lower level just for that reason."
Officer Tucker assisted in
E Cl Rachel Hoffman was to use in the operation. He missed approximately 70 percent of the operational briefing (page 43:7). His knowledge of the operation, who was in attendance at the briefing, and their assignments was limited to the operational plan.
Officer Tucker was asked if he knew what the safeguards were in case of a
robbery or should CI Rachel Hoffman chose not to follow directions. He stated, "I
wasn't at the briefing for that part. I know what normally would happen. As far
as the particular operation I don't know."
Investigator's Note: It should be noted the three Investigators in Officer
Tucker's vehicle, Larremore, Laursen, and Porter, are members of the
Career Criminal Unit and the Tactical Apprehension and Control (TAC)
team. They were carrying gear to assist the operation should a violent
encounter occur.
Officer Tucker was asked if concern of counter-surveillance by the suspects
would warrant calling off the operations. He stated, "Depends if we had seen
that counter-surveillance or not. Again, it's something you're always aware of. Some of your dopers do it automatically." (page 575-8)
We are now on page 21
When lnvestigator Pender radioed to units that CI Rachel Hoffman was on
Gardner Road, Officer Tucker and his team left the parking lot and headed north
on North Meridian Road. According to Officer Tucker, no one in his vehicle knew
where Gardner Road was located. At some point, he was given directions over
the radio that Gardner Road was approximately two miles north of Thompson
Circle.
Officer Tucker did not activate his lights and siren when responding to Gardner
Road. Officer Tucker stated, "I was tom between activating lights and sirens. If
this is going bad to a robbery, they hear it coming, and something bad happens,
which we didn't know at the time she was already - so I was torn between getting
there as fast as I could and not alerting the bad guys until we got there. At that
point we didn't care about the takedown as far as the arrest. We didn't care
about the dope. We were going to get our CI back.
Investigator Boccio isn ow being interviewed and states:
According to lnvestigator Boccio, the Drug Court program is not an
issue.
I ave to stop here a moment and make a statement as so far we have heard that refrain
Drug Court program is not an issue. On the contrary anyone involved with the profession
"Professional" law enforcement pesonnel will tell you that is a major issue. If they are not in agreement with that point they have no business being.
Again if you wish to read the reports in there entirety you can go to Talgov.com
we will continue to summarize as time permits.Add to Technorati Favorites
