Another Drug Raid Nightmare

[SomeGuy]

Really looks like this case id doomed for the prosecution (I hope). The cops are already giving conflicting testimony on deposition and the judge is allowing it to be entered into evidence. A lawyer friend noted several instances already and its just day 3.


Links to reference quoted can be found at The Agitator.


The Agitator: Radley Balko

The Ryan Frederick Trial, Day Three

Ryan Frederick is the 28-year-old Chesapeake, Virginia man facing murder charges for killing a police officer during a drug raid (see this wiki for more on Frederick’s case). My coverage of the first two days of his trial here.

I should note in these updates that I’m not actually in Chesapeake for the trial. My analysis of what’s happening is contingent on reporting from the trial from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper and from local blogger Don Tabor, who is writing up reports from notes he’s taking in the courtroom (and whom I’ve found to be pretty fair in his prior coverage of the case).

Yesterday began with the state calling Jarrond Shivers’ widow to the stand. I found this odd, and a couple of criminal defense attorneys I spoke with (both not related to the case) confirmed my suspicions. I don’t doubt Nicole Shivers’ grief, but her tearful testimony added nothing substantive to what’s at issue in this case: whether Ryan Frederick knew or should have known that the men breaking into his home were police officers. Shivers testified about her first date with her husband, about their relationship, and about the last time she saw him. This sort of testimony at least makes some sense during a sentencing hearing, but during the guilt phase of a criminal trial, it’s inappropriate. It’s only purpose is to spark juror emotions—to put in their head that a "not guilty" verdict may only inflame the widows’ grief.

According to Tabor, Frederick attorney James Broccoletti didn’t object to Shivers taking the stand, though it’s possible that he objected to her inclusion as a witness at an earlier hearing. Broccoletti didn’t respond to an email query (understandably, given that he’s in the middle of a trial). It’s possible that Broccoletti calculated that objecting to allowing Shivers to have her say would lose him sympathy with the jury, particularly if he thought he’d be overruled, anyway. I’d be interested in what readers with a criminal law background think of Nicole Shivers taking the stand.

The rest of the day was taken up by testimony from police officers involved in the raid. They reiterated the claim that they knocked and announced themselves repeatedly. Tabor found their testimony believable. I’ve heard from others at the trail who found them less credible. But I’m not sure their credibility matters. Even taking the officers’ testimony at face value, from the first knock until the battering ram took out the lower panel of his front door, Frederick had at most 25 seconds to wake up, gauge what was going on outside his home, and determine what to do about it. This, while his dogs were going nuts, and after he’d been burglarized days earlier (by the police department’s own informant).

A few other items that came out yesterday that are worth noting:

• On the day of the raid, Frederick bought two dead bolt locks for his door. A relatively minor point, but it helps establish his state of mind the night of the raid.

• Broccoletti conceded that Frederick did at some point grow marijuana plants for personal use, but Frederick adamantly denies ever selling any. The police had no evidence at the time to suggest otherwise. (I don’t know what the state has in store for the trial. It wouldn’t surprise me if they trotted out a jailhouse snitch claiming to have bought marijuana from Frederick). They attempted no controlled buys from Frederick. They surveilled his home and found nothing unusual. The affidavit mentions no complaints from neighbors (the neighbors I’ve spoken to speak highly of him). This raid wasn’t conducted on a community menace. It was conducted on a guy who smoked and sometimes grew pot in his own home, for his own use.

• Indeed, the police officers who testified yesterday conceded that the only evidence they had on Frederick was the word of their informant, Steven Wright. Wright at the time was being held on felony charges related to credit card theft. According to the officers who testified, Wright had helped them on one prior case, and was paid $50.

I should first add that this testimony conflicts with what Renaldo Turnbull (the other man who broke into Frederick’s house with Wright) told me in June, and with what he told the Virginian-Pilot last February. Turnbull said both he and Wright had been working with the police for months, and that the police had encouraged them to illegally break into private homes to obtain probably cause for search warrants.

But let’s assume the police officers are telling the truth. If so, that means they broke into Frederick’s house after nightfall, using a battering ram, based solely on the word of a shady informant who at the time was facing his own felony charges. Not only that, but he didn’t even have the marijuana plants he claimed to have taken. Those plants, if they even exist, have never been in police possession.

• From the Virginian-Pilot:

Roberts, Shivers’ partner in the Frederick case, testified at length about the history of the investigation, the informant used and the surveillance conducted.

He described how they pulled up to the house that night in an unmarked van with the lights off. A second group was in an unmarked car, and a marked patrol unit rolled up past the house.

Dressed mostly in black, they “approached in a stealth manor,” [sic] Roberts said. Shivers was to be the first through the door.

They started pounding on the door, shouting and then trying to break it down with a battering ram.

“I wanted, without a doubt, Mr. Frederick to know that we were the police outside,” Detective Sgt. Scott Chambers said.

This doesn’t make sense. If they wanted Frederick to know there were police outside "without a doubt," why approach the house in a "stealth-like manner"? Why dress in black, and pull up silently in black, unmarked cars? If they wanted Frederick to know "without a doubt" that the police were outside his home, they should have used lights and sirens. Perhaps a bullhorn.

This is the typical position the police take in these cases. They simultaneously maintain that the ninja tactics are necessary to take the suspect by surprise—and that the suspect should have known it was the police who were breaking into his home. The only way to resolve those two positions is to say that the police want to be stealth until they get to the door, at which point they want to be loud and boisterous. That is, they want to take the suspect by surprise until just before entry, at which point they want to make it clear who they are. That puts an incredible amount of pressure on, in this case and others, a sleeping person to wake up and correctly ascertain what’s going on.

(I’d encourage readers to experiment sometime. Lay down in a bedroom and have a friend pound on your front door and yell. See if you can decipher what they’re saying, even while awake.)

• As I discussed yesterday, the other gaping hole in the prosecution’s case is that they’re maintaining that even though Steven Wright told them Frederick’s home was broken into three nights before the raid, and even though they knew that Wright was in Frederick’s home the same night it was burglarized, they didn’t know until months later that it was actually Wright who conducted the burglary, and that he conducted it specifically (and illegally) to obtain probable cause for the search warrant.

Again from the Virginian-Pilot:

Roberts’ testimony drew the most intense cross-examination after he named the informant – Steven Wright, whose full name is Steven Rene Wright. The police have refused until the trial to name him.

Also for the first time, Wright was identified as the person who alerted police to a break-in at Frederick’s house days before the raid.

Wright failed, however, to tell police that it was he who broke into Frederick’s garage and stole several marijuana plants, despite being asked “15 times,” Roberts said. Police didn’t learn that until about three months ago, he said.

Again, lots of problems, here. If they had to ask Wright "15 times," might that speak to his trustworthiness as an informant—particularly one on whose word would be the sole reason you conduct a home invasion raid?

Moreover, why would Wright possibly implicate himself by telling the police about the burglary in the first place? Did the police think Frederick invited him in? Did they ask Wright how he was able to take several plants without Frederick noticing?

The state seems to be arguing that Wright came to the police that night and said something to the effect of, "Okay, I found several marijuana plants in the guy’s garage tonight. I took a few. Don’t ask me how I got them. Also, I don’t have the actual plants anymore. Must have lost them. But I’m sure they were marijuana. Trust me on that. Also, somebody broke into his garage tonight. But it wasn’t me."

And they bought it? In fact, they not only bought it, they bought it enough that they didn’t feel they needed to do any further investigation before conducting a raid?

Seems to be that what Turnbull told me and the Virginia-Pilot is a far more plausible explanation. The cops had an arrangement with these guys. The cops looked the other way while their informants illegally broke into homes to get probable cause. That would explain why the cops knew on the night of the raid that Frederick’s house had been burglarized three nights earlier (and were recorded saying as much).



Finally, we still don’t know if Turnbull and Wright been charged for burglarizing Ryan Frederick’s home. If not, why not?

 

[SomeGuy]

Fridays update in the Virginian Pilot

Officers - except for one - testify about night of Frederick raid

CHESAPEAKE

Ryan Frederick's attorneys accused prosecutors Friday of withholding information and failing to produce a witness who might have evidence that would help the defense.

The attorneys spent the late afternoon arguing over a re-enactment video and other information that prosecutors gathered months after the Jan. 17, 2008, shooting death of Detective Jarrod Shivers.

Shivers, 34, was shot executing a search warrant at Frederick's Portlock home, where police believed Frederick was growing marijuana. The 29-year-old Frederick is charged with capital murder, but he claims he fired in self-defense.

After hearing two days of testimony from nearly every officer at the scene that night, defense attorney James Broccoletti said in court he had expected to hear from the officer who first spoke to Frederick after he surrendered.

Special prosecutors told Judge Marjorie T. Arrington that the officer was unavailable to testify because he was in Georgia for training and was expected to be there for weeks, if not months.

Broccoletti said he believes the officer would testify that Frederick appeared sober that night, contrary to what prosecutor James Willett said in his opening statement, that

Frederick "was stoned out of his mind."

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but based on the opening statement, which I did not expect, I think we need him back here to testify," Broccoletti told the judge.

She agreed and ordered the prosecutors to get the officer back.

Later in the day, while the evidence technician on the scene that night was testifying about a re-enactment photo, Broccoletti's partner, Eric Korslund, noticed a line running through the photo.

The technician, Grover Davis, who has since retired, said the line was a string used to show the trajectory of the fatal bullet from inside the house, through the door, to the person standing in for Shivers during a re-enactment held in March. There was also a corresponding laser beam.

This was news to the defense team.

"Luckily, Mr. Korslund's eyes are better than mine and he saw it," Broccoletti said.

The defense team knew about the re-enactment, but Broccoletti wondered aloud whether the prosecutors have other scientific evidence or measurements they haven't shared.

The prosecutors said they did not believe they had any other evidence they are obligated to turn over to the defense, though they might have privileged information they are not required to share.

The judge ordered the prosecution to search for any other evidence or information they may have, and she will rule whether the defense team should have it. She also ordered prosecutors to let the defense team watch the video that was taken the night of the re-enactment.

The trial resumes Monday, when the jury is scheduled to be taken to Frederick's house.

 

[SomeGuy]

Seems they did find some grow equipment in his place. I cannot wait for the obvious questions on this, are they illegal and imply guilt even though no illegal plants were found in them. Having the magazines, if grow related was stupid, IMO, easily disposable, yet they may have supplied a map to the jury as to what the rest of the goodies were for. Anyone taking notes here?

But then again, he's on trial for murder, not cultivation and the prosecutions case revolves around premeditation as they claim he "knew they were coming." Would YOU have left this stuff in an attic for 3 or 4 days if YOU knew the cops were coming?

Their most surprising find, to me anyway, was a somewhat honest cop on their force that conflicted testimony of the rest.
They postponed the trip to Ryans place to "see if any items were lying around that would be inappropriate for the jury" you mean like a 4 foot X 20 foot sign with hundreds of signatures in his front yard expressing support for him? Remember the "city is harassing us" post from above? They didn't give a crap that his yard wasn't mowed, they wanted that sign GONE. Also wasn't there some mention of the cops patching bullet holes in his place somewhere?

Enough of my ramblings, heres the news, pictures and video of the proceedings at the link.

Virdinian Pilot

CHESAPEAKE

Jurors in the Ryan Frederick murder trial got a lesson on growing marijuana Monday, as prosecutors hauled in cart loads of equipment, including high-powered heat lamps, hydroponic planting trays and how-to books.

Defense attorneys pointed out what they did not produce - any actual cannabis plants and only 2.6 grams of marijuana.

Frederick's trial entered its second week Monday. He faces charges of capital murder, use of a firearm and manufacturing marijuana. He is accused of fatally shooting Detective Jarrod Shivers the night of Jan. 17, 2008, when police went to his Portlock home with a search warrant.

On Monday, jurors could be seen smiling and smirking as prosecutors passed around books, such as "The Best of Ask Ed: Your Marijuana Questions Answered," and "Spliffs 2: Future Adventures in Cannabis Culture." (Spliff is a slang term for a marijuana cigarette.)

Magazines titled High Times and Skunk also were shown.

After the shooting, police found the items in the attic of the house and detached garage. Later testimony is expected to show that Frederick was tipped off to the police investigation and got rid of any plants he had and dismantled his growing operation.

Steven Rene Wright, a police informant who sparked the investigation, was scheduled to testify Monday afternoon about buying marijuana from Frederick, seeing the plants growing in Frederick's garage and even stealing some of them.

But his testimony was delayed while the attorneys argued over a legal issue involving what Wright could and could not tell the jury. He is expected to testify today.

Also Monday, prosecutors flew in from Georgia a former Chesapeake detective who testified that Frederick had no problem understanding his questions after the shooting.

Edward Winkelspecht, now in training with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Frederick appeared coherent and responsive after being read his Miranda warnings. He testified that Frederick agreed to speak without a lawyer present.

The defense tried to show the jury that Frederick's demeanor was normal and that he was not "stoned out of his mind," as a prosecutor suggested in opening arguments.

"You had no concern about his ability to understand those rights?" Frederick's attorney, James Broccoletti, asked the detective.

"No, sir," Winkelspecht answered.

The rest of the conversation was not relayed to the jury. After the initial questioning, which took place in the back of a patrol car outside the house after the shooting, Frederick was taken to police headquarters, where on video he stated that he fired in self-defense. That also has not come out at trial yet.

Jurors on Monday also were scheduled to visit Frederick's home, but that was postponed to later in the week. Circuit Court Judge Marjorie T. Arrington, the attorneys and Frederick are scheduled to go to the house this morning to determine if any items were lying around that would be inappropriate for the jury to see.

 

[SomeGuy]

I was out a few days so I don't know if this is in order or if I missed anything. Will do my best to get it all.

The jurors visited the scene but I cannot find the Virginian reporting.

Virginian Pilot

Video at the links

© January 28, 2009

CHESAPEAKE

Ryan Frederick threatened to kill police informant Steven Rene Wright after learning that Wright broke into his garage and stole five marijuana plants, Wright testified at Frederick's murder trial Tuesday.

"I had a week to turn myself in to him or he was going to go after my family," Wright said from the witness stand. "He said he was going to... kill me if I didn't come."

The conversation, Wright said, happened three days before police raided Frederick's Portlock home looking for a marijuana growing operation, based in part on Wright's assistance. As police tried to break down his door the night of Jan. 17, 2008, Frederick shot and killed Chesapeake Detective Jarrod Shivers.

Frederick contends he didn't know the police were at his door, but a jailhouse witness testified late Tuesday that Frederick told him he did see the police that night.

But it was Wright's testimony that consumed most of the day. He was subjected to heated cross-examination by defense attorney James Broccoletti, who raised questions about Wright's character and his propensity to lie in order to help himself.

Wright told a prosecutor that a city detective told him to go to Frederick's house "to make sure there were marijuana plants still growing there" prior to the raid. He insisted police never instructed him to break in. He admitted breaking a contract with police by burglarizing the garage, though he was never charged.

Wright said he and a friend, Renaldo Turnbull Jr., broke into Frederick's garage on Jan. 14, 2008, and stole five of about 10 plants growing in a sophisticated hydroponic tent. They then went to another friend's house where they made a cell phone video of the plants.

The plants were never turned over to police, he said, but Frederick learned Wright took them and called with the threats.

Wright said he met Frederick earlier in 2007 while dating the sister of Frederick's fiancee.

In the six to eight months prior to the raid, Wright said, he'd been to Frederick's house at 932 Redstart Ave. 30 to 50 times; he saw the marijuana growing operation at almost every visit; and he smoked the drug with Frederick and others. He said Frederick even explained to him how the hydroponic system produced superior cannabis.

Wright said he became a police informant after seeking help from a drug dealer in an unrelated case who threatened him. He said police paid him $60 for information that led to the arrest of that dealer.

Despite being limited by the judge to testifying about one or two marijuana sales between November 2007 and the night of the raid, Wright blurted out that he bought marijuana from Frederick some 20 to 30 times throughout 2007.

Wright, 20, a one-time Hooters employee, came under intense cross examination by Broccoletti, but Wright continued answering questions politely, typically with a "Yes, sir," or "No, sir."

Wright admitted lying to police and prosecutors before confessing to breaking into Frederick's garage with his friend, Turnbull.

He said Detective Kiley Roberts had him sign a contract stating he would not break any laws while helping police.

"Did he instruct you to break into the house?" Broccoletti asked Wright.

"No, sir," Wright answered.

"Did he coach you to burglarize the home?" Broccoletti asked.

"No, sir," Wright replied.

Also Tuesday, Jamal Skeeter said Frederick told him in the Chesapeake Correctional Center last year that he saw the police outside his house that night and shot at them intentionally.

"He was in the room. He seen the police by the garage," Skeeter said. "The only thing he said he heard was 'Police, open the door.' "

Frederick has said he never heard the police shouting that night.

Skeeter is serving prison time for grand larceny and drug offenses.

Frederick faces charges of capital murder, use of a firearm and manufacturing marijuana. If convicted of capital murder, he would get an automatic life prison term.

 

[SomeGuy]

Virginian Pilot

Ok, this describes the visit to the scene, pics of it at the link.

CHESAPEAKE
January 29, 2009

Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A. T. Arrington has recessed the Ryan Frederick trial until 2 p.m. today to give Frederick’s defense team time to investigate questions about a jailhouse informant who on Tuesday testified against Frederick.

The trial will resume at 2 p.m.

The informant, Jamal Skeeter, had testified that Frederick confessed to him in the Chesapeake jail that he saw the police outside his house the night Frederick shot and killed Detective Jarrod Shivers. Frederick has claimed that he didn’t know the police were outside the night the arrived at his Redstart Avenue home in Portlock to serve a drug warrant.

However, defense attorneys this morning told Circiut Court Judge Marjorie A. T. Arrington that Skeeter has proven so unreliable in past cases that the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney has refused to use him as a witness.

On Wednesday, Arrington denied a request by Ryan Frederick's attorneys to throw out charges of capital murder and growing marijuana.

After prosecutors rested their case, the defense attorneys argued that the evidence presented in court was insufficient to support a charge of premeditated murder, nor was there evidence showing the manufacture and distribution of marijuana.

"I think that a prima facie case can be made on both charges," the judge said, without elaborating.

That means, barring any other motions, the jury will decide whether Frederick is guilty of capital murder, use of a firearm and the marijuana charge. He's on trial in the Jan. 17, 2008, shooting of Detective Jarrod Shivers during a marijuana raid at Frederick's Portlock home.

On a day packed with witnesses, a video and a jury visit to the Frederick home at 932 Redstart Ave., there was a pause when the judge learned that one of the witnesses, a city detective who was about to take the stand, had learned that his father just died.

Detective Kiley Roberts decided to testify. He described the painful night making a re-enactment video two months after the fatal shooting.

"I almost threw up three or four times," he said of that night. "I couldn't get out of the van. I couldn't move my legs."

The officers re-enacted the raid and shooting, but Roberts acknowledged it was not an exact replica of events.

Special prosecutors, who came from Prince William County to try the case, asked that the video be made so they could better understand the events that happened that night.

"The only thing I could think about was the end of that evening - all that training I've been through couldn't save a man's life," Roberts said.

Defense attorney James Broccoletti questioned how they could have made a video without duplicating exactly how they knocked on Frederick's door the night of the raid.

Frederick claims self-defense. He says he never heard police banging at his door or shouting and that he fired thinking someone was breaking in.

"The most critical and important moment of that night was incorrect?" Broccoletti asked Roberts.

Prosecutors, though, objected, and the judge would not allow him to answer. Broccoletti tried again.

"The knock and announce by you, the method of the knock and announce by you, the sequence of the knock and announce by you, was not correct?" he asked of the video.

"No, it was not," Roberts answered.

After the prosecution rested, the defense attorneys put on at least six neighbors of Frederick's who testified that they heard nothing of the initial knock and announcement by the narcotics detectives, nor did they hear them yelling at Frederick to come out with his hands up after he had shot Shivers.

Thomas Ehret, who lives next door, said he didn't hear anything unusual until his dog started barking and he looked out the window and saw police working on Shivers on his sidewalk.

"Did you hear anyone yelling, 'Police, come out. Police, come out.'? " Broccoletti asked.

"No," Ehret said, adding that the first noise he heard was an ambulance.

Richard Wick, who lives across the street, said the first thing he heard was a loud bang and that when he looked out about a minute later, he saw the officer on the ground in front of Ehret's house.

Other neighbors two and three doors away gave similar testimony.

Sandra Brooks, who lives six doors down and was sitting on her porch that night, said she didn't see the police pull up or hear them banging on Frederick's door. She said she did think she heard neighbors arguing.

"I don't remember hearing anything," she said, until the SWAT team arrived with a bullhorn.

The SWAT team arrived after the shooting and Frederick's surrender.

Broccoletti is trying to show the jury that Frederick couldn't have heard anything, either.

Also Wednesday, several Chesapeake sheriff's deputies working in the jail testified that they had referred some concerns from Frederick to the department's internal affairs office. But the judge would not allow the deputies to explain exactly what th e concerns were.

Frederick's attorneys earlier told the judge, without the jury present, that Frederick had received threats from other inmates and asked that he not be bothered.

Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Elizabeth Kinnison, the assistant chief medical examiner, testified that the bullet that struck Shivers punctured three major arteries, including his aorta.

 

[SomeGuy]

The Agitator

Breaking News in the Ryan Frederick Case
Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Big development in the Ryan Frederick trial today.

This morning, Frederick’s attorney, James Broccoletti, requested and was granted a recess after three attorneys contacted him last night with concerns about state’s witness Jamal Skeeter, a jailhouse snitch who testified on Tuesday.

According to local TV station WVEC, one of the attorneys was actually another prosecutor, Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley.

Broccoletti said Mobley told him Skeeter is well-known to prosecutors for giving false testimony and is considered a “professional witness.”

Ebert apparently told the court, “he did not realize Skeeter had questionable credibility.”

His long felony record and wholly implausible testimony didn’t give it away?

 

[SomeGuy]

This story was linked to the last line of the above story.

Follow this link to their sources, if you are so inclined.

Reason Magazine: Hit and Run

Day Seven of the Ryan Frederick Trial: Parade of Snitches

Radley Balko | January 28, 2009, 4:30pm

Informant and jailhouse snitch testimony dominated yesterday's proceedings at the Ryan Frederick trial. Frederick is the 28-year-old Chesapeake, Virginia man facing murder charges for killing a police officer during a drug raid (see this wiki for more on Frederick's case). My prior coverage of his trial here. Virginian-Pilot coverage of yesterday's events here. Coverage from the local libertarian blog Tidewater Liberty here.

The star for most of yesterday was Steven Wright, the informant who tipped police off to Frederick, and who illegally broke into Frederick's home three nights before before the raid to obtain probable cause.

A few observations, before I excerpt from the Virginian-Pilot's coverage of his testimony:

• The Virginian-Pilot article doesn't mention it, but Wright was arrested a few days prior to the raid on charges of credit card theft and fraud. Those charges were dropped shortly after the raid, then reinstated months later, when Wright was arrested again. He was due to stand trial last month. Conveniently, his trial date was moved to tomorrow, two days after his testimony against Frederick.

• Wright's portrayal of Frederick as a vengeful killer with a gangsta' vibe runs contrary to everything I've heard about Frederick from neighbors, coworkers, and friends and family.

• According to Wright and the police detectives the state has put on the stand, Wright not only illegally broke into Frederick's home, he lied to police about it for months, possibly compromising not only a drug investigation, but an investigation into the killing of a police officer. Yet he's never been charged—not for the break-in, nor for lying about it for months.

Here's the Virginian-Pilot's account of Wrights testimony:

Ryan Frederick threatened to kill police informant Steven Rene Wright after learning that Wright broke into his garage and stole five marijuana plants, Wright testified at Frederick's murder trial Tuesday.

"I had a week to turn myself in to him or he was going to go after my family," Wright said from the witness stand. "He said he was going to... kill me if I didn't come."

[...]

Wright said he and a friend, Renaldo Turnbull Jr., broke into Frederick's garage on Jan. 14, 2008, and stole five of about 10 plants growing in a sophisticated hydroponic tent. They then went to another friend's house where they made a cell phone video of the plants.

The plants were never turned over to police, he said, but Frederick learned Wright took them and called with the threats.

Wright said he met Frederick earlier in 2007 while dating the sister of Frederick's fiancee.

In the six to eight months prior to the raid, Wright said, he'd been to Frederick's house at 932 Redstart Ave. 30 to 50 times; he saw the marijuana growing operation at almost every visit; and he smoked the drug with Frederick and others. He said Frederick even explained to him how the hydroponic system produced superior cannabis.

Wright said he became a police informant after seeking help from a drug dealer in an unrelated case who threatened him. He said police paid him $60 for information that led to the arrest of that dealer.

Despite being limited by the judge to testifying about one or two marijuana sales between November 2007 and the night of the raid, Wright blurted out that he bought marijuana from Frederick some 20 to 30 times throughout 2007.

Wright insists he was never asked by Chesapeake police to break into Frederick's home. Rather, he said he did so voluntarily as part of a scheme he planned with several friends. They'd steal half the plants, then leave the other half for the police to find after Wright tipped them off. The problem for the prosecution, here, is that in order to believe Wright's testimony, they'll also have to accept his own testimony that he's a habitual liar who routinely spins out falsehoods when it's in his interest.

The state then called Jamal Skeeter, a jailhouse snitch with a long felony record. From the Tidewater Liberty blog:

Mr. Skeeter said that he had been in the Chesapeake jail for a period of about 10 days in June of 2008. He had been brought here from the Correctional facility at Lawrenceville, where he was serving a 14 year sentence. He was here to testify as a witness in another case.

He wore red coveralls, indicating that he is in solitary confinement. (Mr. Frederick has been in solitary confinement throughout his entire stay at the jail). He said that in June he was in the gym (on his one hour daily “break”) when “someone” pointed Mr. Frederick out (thru a glass door) as “the guy who shot a policeman.” Mr. Skeeter somehow arranged to speak to Mr. Frederick (through a glass door) and that Mr. Frederick immediately “broke out in a story” saying that he knew he was shooting a cop, but that he was trying to get off on self-defense.

[...]

He said Mr. Frederick told him that he was high when the police got to his house, and that he had hollow points in his gun. When asked about Mr. Frederick’s demeanor, Mr. Skeeter said he “was trying to be a gangsta” and didn’t seem sorry for what he had done.

[...]

Mr. Skeeter claimed that he has made no deal with anyone, and that he’s doing this (testifying against Mr. Frederick) for Det Shivers family because “it ain’t right.”

To sum, the career felon Mr. Skeeter took interest in Frederick after "someone" told him Frederick shot a cop. In their first conversation, through a glass door, during an hour-long break in the jail's gym, Frederick apparently confessed everything to Mr. Skeeter. Skeeter, the felon, then contacted prosecutors, not to get time off his own sentence, but because of the overwhelming sense of empathy he felt for the dead cop's family, and because Frederick's confession violated his own personal sense of right and wrong.

Sure. Sounds plausible.

The state then called jailhouse informant Lamont Malone, who is serving time for seven different felonies. Malone has already testified once against someone else, resulting in a reduction in his sentence from life to about 19 years.

Again from Tidewater Liberty:

He said he is currently in the Chesapeake jail (he has also been in Suffolk and Portsmouth), and has “gotten to know” Mr. Frederick. He said Mr. Frederick’s jailhouse nickname is “Calvin.” He said that Mr. Frederick calls his gun “Roscoe” and that Mr. Frederick shot the police after they kicked in his door because he “panicked” and “had to get rid of his product.” He said that Mr. Frederick told him that he grew “Hydro” and that he had to get rid of his plants. He didn’t say how he did this.

He said that Mr. Frederick told him that he wanted to keep his case in Chesapeake because of the support, and that he expects that his lawyer is going to get him off.. He said that Mr. Frederick has expressed no remorse.

[...]

He said that Mr. Frederick makes unkind comments about Mrs. Shivers, and that he doesn’t seem sorry for what he did. He said that Mr. Frederick has been “laughing it up” with another prisoner, who is facing similar charges.

Laying it on thick, aren't they?

When weighing yesterday's testimony against Frederick's story, it's probably useful to remember that Frederick had no prior criminal record, and had a full-time job that required him to get up early in the morning (with kind words from his employers). Friends and neighbors described him to me last year as a shy, introverted guy who smoked pot recreationally.

It'll be interesting to see if Renaldo Turnbull gets called to testify, and what his testimony might look like if he does.

 

[Macster2]

Seems the only credible guy is the one on trail

 

[SomeGuy]

Seems the only credible guy is the one on trail

Well, there was the cop the department sent to GA so he wouldn't testify that Ryan was not "stoned out of his mind" during questioning that had to testify anyway.

Funny, the only cop with a conflicting story, conveeeeniently out of town, nice try Mr. Sucky Special Prosecutor!

Also the 6 neighbors questioned seem pretty credible that they heard NOTHING before the raid one even being outside on her porch.

 

[FreedomFGHTR]

Rats and Pigs.... Hate em both!

The cops are trying anyway possible to convict this dude cause he killed one of their own. When it was them damn cops who fucked up. Typical of the American Justice system.

 

[thor]

I wish him all the best, if he gets sentenced, I have no more faith in America's system of freedom - seems you guys can have weapons in your home but it's a nono to use it against potential burglars. What a paradoxically f'd up situation.

 

[JJScorpio]

Here's another article....


By Tim McGlone

© January 29, 2009
CHESAPEAKE

Ryan Frederick took the witness stand in his own defense this afternoon, saying he did not mean to kill a Chesapeake police officer in January 2008.

Frederick had answered questions from his lawyer for about an hour when the judge called a short break.

Frederick admitted that he grew marijuana at his home on Redstart Avenue, but only for his personal use. He disputed much of the testimony from police informant Steven R. Wright, who testified for the prosecution earlier this week during Frederick's capital murder trial.

After the direct examination ends, he will answer questions from the prosecution.

A jailhouse informant, who testified that Ryan Frederick told him he saw police outside his house the night he shot a detective, has proven so unreliable that Portsmouth prosecutors refuse to use him as a witness.

The informant, Jamal Skeeter, is a witness in the prosecution case against Frederick, who is charged with capital murder in the killing of Detective Jarrod Shivers during a drug raid. Skeeter has been the only witness to testify that Frederick knew police were outside his house the night of Jan. 17, 2008.

Skeeter testified Tuesday that Frederick told him in a jailhouse confession that he saw the police and heard them shouting “open the door” outside his home the night of the raid.

Frederick is claiming self-defense, that he thought burglars were breaking into his house and he fired to protect himself. His garage, where police believed he was growing marijuana, had been broken into three days earlier.

Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A. T. Arrington recessed Frederick’s trial Thursday morning to give the defense team time to investigate the information they received. The trial is scheduled to resume at 2 p.m.

Defense attorney James Broccoletti said in court that Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Earl Mobley contacted him and the special prosecutors Wednesday night after seeing Skeeter’s name in the newspaper. Mobley told them he may have “significant exculpatory evidence,” Broccoletti said.

“Mr. Skeeter is a professional witness and has tried to provide information in several other jurisdictions,” Broccoletti said to the judge, referring to what Mobley told him. Skeeter’s information, he was told, varied from one version to the next that he proved to be unreliable in Portsmouth.

Special Prosecutor Paul Ebert said he had no idea of Skeeter’s reputation until Mobley called him.

Still, “I like to think he’s credible,” Ebert told the judge.

A spokesman for Mobley said this morning that Portsmouth prosecutors had used Skeeter as a witness but stopped. The spokesman, Bill Prince, could not immediately identify what cases Skeeter testified in.

“We didn’t find him to be trustworthy. We felt an obligation to turn that over to the Chesapeake people,” Prince said this morning. “We got to the point where we wouldn’t use him anymore.”

To sit on such information, he said, would be “offensive.”

Mobley’s office also sent a letter last year to the Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney upon learning that Skeeter was scheduled to testify against a homicide suspect.

Norfolk did not use Skeeter as a witness.

Acting Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert C. Slaughter III was not immediately available for comment.

Broccoletti has said that he plans to show that Frederick complained to sheriff’s deputies in the Chesapeake jail that other inmates were harassing and threatening him and asked that he be left alone. One deputy testified Wednesday that after Frederick complained an order was issued to inmates not to speak to one another at their jail cell doors.

Skeeter is serving state prison time for grand larceny and drug offenses. Prisoners hope to get time shaved off their prison terms by providing useful information to other criminal cases

 

[JJScorpio]

Who thinks this is a coincidence? I guess they wanted to keep him in jail to make sure he said what he was supposed to....

By John Hopkins
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 29, 2009
Steven Rene Wright, a police informant in a pending fatal police shooting case, was granted a bond Thursday in an unrelated case.

Circuit Judge Bruce Kushner granted Wright a $25,000 secured bond on a charge of grand larceny and $2,000 personal recognizance bonds on other charges against him. Wright had been in the Virginia Beach jail since October after he failed to appear in court on the charges against him. He was indicted in Chesapeake in October on a felony charge of failure to appear.

Wright served as a police informant in a drug investigation of Ryan Frederick, a Portlock man on trial in Chesapeake Circuit Court for fatally shooting a detective Jan. 17, 2008 as authorities attempted to execute a search warrant at his home. Wright, working with police as an informant, burglarized Frederick’s garage days before the deadly police raid. He has not been charged in that burglary.

Wright’s attorney argued that he has family ties to the area and that the charges against him are all non-violent offenses. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Abbey asked that Wright be held to guarantee he appears in court, if again needed, for Frederick's trial and other cases.

Wright will be supervised while free on bond and must remain in the “Tidewater’’ area, the judge ruled.

 

[SomeGuy]

Who thinks this is a coincidence? I guess they wanted to keep him in jail to make sure he said what he was supposed to....

Good on you JJ, I was just going to post that last article you had.

No kidding, Radley Balko predicted this would be a complete railroad job and the prosecution seems to be living up to it with a vengeance.

They tried to convince the jury that "Ryan knew they were coming" yet doesn't even try to explain why he did in fact have a small amount of weed, paraphernalia and what appeared to be remnants of an illegal grow op, which they tried to use in character assassination.

Seems to me that if "Ryan knew cops were coming," the house would have been swept completely clean with not so much as a crumb inside as he had DAYS between the burglary and the raid. Furthermore, if Ryan knew cops were coming, you would HAVE to assume that Ryan knew Steven Wright was working FOR the cops.

Am I wrong on this point?

Seems this real live snitch got cash and other considerations for his info and for his testimony.

 

[KMK0420]

so freaking unnecessary.

 

[In_Hollywood]

Why can't we protect our homes, from a "break-in"?

Why can't we protect our homes, from a "break-in"?

Hmm, and what about the judge/magistrate that authorized a night time, no knock warrant on a house with ONLY a CI tip as the probable cause? Whoever that judge/magistrate is should be outed in public and removed from the bench/job for gross negligence.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =>>> I can't understand why this guy's attorney doesn't protect his client, by claiming he had a right to bare arms (a gun) and to Portect his home from a break-in, which he thought was happening when the Cops busted the door down!! Seems a HARSH way to serve a Warrent, don't ya think???!!! =Judy=

 

[bongasaurus]

similar story going on these days in my hometown... totally in its own context though. dont mean to jam up the thread but it made me think of this story immediately

http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...pg_anderson_100608/20081006/?hub=WinnipegHome

Man pleas not guilty to shooting cops
Updated: Wed Oct. 08 2008 12:07:09

ctvwinnipeg.ca

Daniel Anderson, the man charged with the attempted murder of two Winnipeg police officers during a drug raid at his home two years ago, has pleaded not guilty.

On Dec. 7, 2006 officers were executing a search warrant for drugs inside his home on Jubilee Avenue.

During the raid, two officers were shot by someone on the other side of the bathroom door.

A third police officer was also shot from another officer's ricochet bullet.

During the first day of his trial a supervising street crime officer recalled what happened that night.

He described hearing gunfire shortly after entering the home.

He testified that Anderson's mother began yelling "Danny, Danny, no. What are you doing? Stop, Danny. You shot a cop."

Anderson left the first day of his trial Monday with his father by his side. The man is also charged with dangerous use of a weapon.

It's expected that during the two-week trial, lawyers will argue whether or not Anderson actually knew that police officers were entering his home that night.

One officer has already testified that police identified themselves by yelling repeatedly.

Anderson's lawyer is arguing his client didn't know it was police because of how quickly everything happened, his screaming mother, and poor lighting.

 

[nephilthim]

anybody that enjoys violating the citizenry rights to be notified of police and their intent no where was it said that the swat team identified themsleves as l.e.o.
personally after having run ins with l.e.o. while being a legal medical user.nice shot!there is one less peestain po po potentialy polluting the gene pool!

 

[SomeGuy]

The Virginian-Pilot

Testimony ends in Frederick trial; closing arguments Monday

The Virginian-Pilot
© January 30, 2009

CHESAPEAKE

Jurors in the Ryan Frederick murder trial on Friday watched a videotaped interview the defendant gave to police after the shooting that left Chesapeake Detective Jarrod Shivers dead.

It was the first time Frederick had seen the video, too.

In a police interrogation room, Frederick told detectives he "just started shooting," when he saw someone ram his front door.

"Did you hear them announce they were the police?" one detective asked Frederick.

"Never," he said in the video. "I didn't look what I was shooting at. I told you that three or five times."

The detectives appeared polite and courteous, giving Frederick water and a trash can to vomit in.

When detectives left him alone for a few minutes, he curled himself up into a ball and cried, the video showed.

By the end of the day Friday, the jury had heard all the evidence in the case and will return on Monday afternoon for closing arguments and deliberations.

The jury will be left to decide whether Frederick, 29, is guilty of capital murder and should spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting and killing Shivers during a drug raid at Frederick's house on Jan. 17, 2008. They might, though, be allowed to consider lesser homicide charges.

Police raided Frederick's home that night looking for a marijuana-growing operation that informant Steven Rene Wright had told them about.

The jury will be left to sift inconsistencies among the defendant, informants and the police before deciding Frederick's fate.

In court, as he had testified earlier, Frederick admitted that he lied to the detectives that night about his marijuana-growing operation and failed to tell them that some plants had been stolen days earlier. Frederick also said he saw a face and then a hand reach through the hole in his front door.

He said it was then that he fired his gun. Detectives disputed that scenario, saying they never did that and backed away once Shivers was shot. Prosecutors latched onto that difference as a chief inconsistency between Frederick and the police.

"If you lied about something like marijuana, wouldn't you lie about the shooting?" James Willett, one of the special prosecutors from Prince William County, asked Frederick after the video.

"I didn't lie," Frederick answered.

The most crucial inconsistency, according to the lawyers involved, is whether Frederick told people he was ready to shoot police that night or, as he said, he had no idea police were at his door before he fired.

"This case, in the long run, is going to bear down on credibility," Richard Conway, one of the special prosecutors, told the judge Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington on Friday.

The jury will have to decide, Conway said, whether the police are "conspiratorial liars" or whether "the defendant's credibility should be more scrutinized."

Conway recalled witness Aaron Curlee to highlight another inconsistency. Curlee testified that Frederick called Wright multiple times after Frederick's garage was burglarized three days before the raid. Frederick accused Wright of taking the plants. Wright at the time was the police informant who provided the information that led to the search warrant.

Curlee said he heard Frederick accuse Wright of the break-in and threatened him, his family and the police.

When Wright replied that he was going to report the threats to police, Frederick responded, " 'I have something for them, too,' " Curlee said on the stand Friday.

Wright, however, in earlier testimony never said that Frederick made such a threat toward police.

Broccoletti, in turn, countered with a phone record showing that the phone in question received one call that night and not multiple calls as Curlee had said.

Also Friday, one of the jailhouse informants, Jamal Skeeter, was recalled to the witness stand, where he engaged in a fiery question-and-answer session with defense attorney James Broccoletti.

Broccoletti introduced about 30 letters Skeeter wrote to various authorities offering his assistance in homicides, police shootings and even the Michael Vick dogfighting case.

On the witness stand, Skeeter didn't deny that he's a "professional witness," but his credibility was called into question again as he denied writing some of the letters, even though acknowledging they were in his handwriting with his name on the envelope. He explained that by saying other jail inmates write letters in his name.

"But that's not you?" defense attorney Broccoletti asked him.

"No," he answered.

Skeeter was a key prosecution witness earlier. He said Frederick told him he saw the police outside his home before he shot. Frederick said he never spoke to Skeeter before.

Skeeter is serving a sentence of nearly 15 years on several drug and grand larceny convictions in Portsmouth and Suffolk, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.

When Skeeter entered the courtroom, he initially refused to answer any questions, saying his safety was in jeopardy. He also tried to order the removal of the media. The judge refused and ordered him to testify.

Broccoletti introduced a letter Skeeter wrote to one of his lawyers about the Vick case.

"You ever told them you knew about the Michael Vick case?" Broccoletti asked.

"Yea," Skeeter replied.

"Did they take you up on it?" the lawyer asked.

"Nah," Skeeter answered.

Portsmouth prosecutors have said they stopped using Skeeter as a witness because he had become unreliable and untrustworthy.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

So in reality, a "professional witness" is actually just a "professional liar". Im sure the jury will see right through this Skeeter testimony. Who the hell would believe a guy named "Skeeter" anyway?

I think the jury will convict on manufacturing charges since Frederick did admit to growing but I don't see any possible way the prosecution has presented guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that Frederick intended to harm police officers. Clearly there are tons of holes in their case and their witnesses are not credible. If justice is served, Frederick will be acquitted of the other charges and released on time served. But these days who knows....