During the following weeks I was able to get enough business to eat at least two squares a day and pay the bills. Most days, I was doing more house closings and divorce cases than anything else. Work was steady, if unexciting.
It had been some time since I had thought about Mr. Traver when I picked up the mail and found a large white envelope containing the discovery on his case. It included a list of witnesses, my client’s criminal record, and a stack of police reports about an inch high. It seemed complete, other than a lab analysis of the alleged cocaine, but that’s not unusual; the laboratory analysis is done in Springfield thus getting lab reports done takes a bit longer than copying a couple of police reports.
The police reports indicated that a special drug task force had used an ice-cream truck to set up a hidden camera across from West Side Park. Law enforcement had sent a confidential informant to purchase cocaine in the park and marked the purchase money so that the bills could be identified when the seller was arrested. The informant had called his supplier, who was to meet him at the big fountain in the center of the park. The informant, whose name had not been disclosed in the discovery, had worn a baggy army jacket to disguise the microphone taped to his chest. With the camera attached to the ice-cream truck, the police must have assumed they wouldn’t be able to pick up the audio.
I made a note to file a motion to disclose the identity of the confidential informant. Informants were always hardcore drug addicts promised help by the police. They usually had long records and a current charge that was fairly minor, such as a misdemeanor or a class four felony. Sometimes the informants were just awaiting the filing of criminal charges. At times the police were good to their word and helped the informants out. At other times they would use them and then screw them over.
The Assistant State’s Attorneys often get pissed off when you ask for the identity of their confidential sources. They claim if they disclose who the informant is, that person can’t be used again to set up buys. A couple of the Assistant State’s Attorneys will refuse to make a plea agreement or will take back a previously offered plea agreement if the defense attorney seeks the name of the informant.
I figure that since the Constitution provides the defendant the right to confront the witnesses against him, he should know who that informant is. After all, this is the most important witness against a client. To defend the case, it’s necessary to know the credibility of the confidential source. Also, I didn’t want to get sued for malpractice for not seeking all the information I would need. If after a hearing a judge finds that we are not entitled to the information, then let him make that decision. The State’s blackmail and threats should not determine who gets a fair trial.
A couple years back, I had a case where the State refused to disclose the name of a confidential source. I was able to get the judge to order the disclosure, but rather than giving up the name, they dismissed the case. I learned later that the source never existed.
The State claimed that Mr. Traver approached the informant and offered to sell him a rock of crack cocaine. They agreed on the price of twenty dollars for the largest rock. All this was allegedly recorded on video and audiotape. The tapes were not enclosed, but were available for me to pick up at the State’s Attorneys’ Office at the courthouse in Urbana, Illinois.
I found the whole setup disturbing. Using an ice-cream truck for police undercover work was wrong and stupid. The last thing anyone needs is to have children around a drug deal. What if something were to go wrong? Also, the potential sentence could be enhanced because the crime was committed in a public park. It seemed unfair to set up the deal and the surveillance in a park. I called and arranged to pick up the tapes.
Half an hour later I had the tapes in hand. I asked to talk to the Assistant State’s Attorney in charge of Mr. Traver’s case. Ironically, his name was Franz Justice. I had dealt with this guy before. Giving him a last name like Justice was like calling a big guy Tiny or a fat guy Slim. He was interested in putting people in jail, not in justice. He didn’t like me and I was not surprised to find he didn’t have time to talk.