Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Copyright: 2001 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265 Author: David Doege, Journal Sentinel staff RACKETEERING ALLEGED IN COMPLICATED MARIJUANA CASE Prosecutors Say Tons Of Drug Were Distributed Here A purported marijuana kingpin who is the focal point of the largest narcotics case in the county in decades will be prosecuted under the state's rarely used racketeering law. All told, Kenneth L. Green, a Chicagoan jailed in lieu of a locally unprecedented $10 million bail, faces prison terms totaling up to 255 years if he is convicted as now charged. Authorities believe is he responsible for the distribution of tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana a year in Milwaukee since 1996. As the eight counts were formally filed by prosecutors during Green's arraignment last week, some of his supposed lieutenants were lining up to plead guilty for their roles in the alleged conspiracy, which is believed to have occasionally distributed kilograms of cocaine during times when marijuana stocks were tight. "At this point, it's my impression a number of defendants will resolve their cases before Mr. Green," Assistant District Attorney John Chisholm, the lead prosecutor in the case, told Circuit Judge Richard J. Sankovitz. In the last few weeks, lawyers for four of the alleged middlemen told Sankovitz that their clients are leaning toward pleading guilty. The terms of any plea bargains extended to the four were not made public in the case. The standard practice in Circuit Court is for those details to be made part of the case record on the day a defendant enters a guilty plea. Chisholm told Sankovitz that a plea bargain has been extended to Green, but his defense attorney, Stephen M. Glynn, said it would be several weeks before he and his client would be able to finish assessing the evidence authorities have accumulated in a probe begun roughly 16 months ago. The case has been cloaked in an unusually high degree of secrecy since Green, 37, and his co-defendants were charged in April and began being picked up on arrest warrants. Evidence, including police reports, is typically not shared with defendants until after arraignment. But in the case involving Green and 10 others, not even the criminal complaints have been made public. State law requires that information in such cases not be disclosed until after the subjects of wiretaps have had the opportunity to waive or contest the use of evidence garnered from the phone bugs. What little evidence that has been made public so far came in the form of testimony during the preliminary hearing for Green last month. During that proceeding, testimony from two men who are alleged to have dealt in large quantities of marijuana indicated that Green simultaneously supplied multiple Milwaukee middlemen with hundreds of pounds of marijuana monthly while he was tucked away safely in Chicago. One of the two informants testified that by himself he distributed 31/2 tons of marijuana a year for Green. Lead investigator Timothy Gray, of the state Division of Narcotics Enforcement, testified that authorities used sophisticated surveillance, including the use of satellite-based tracking bugs and videotaping in addition to the wiretaps. The evidence also included transcripts of recorded telephone conversations involving an alleged Green lieutenant, Daniel Ellis, from the state prison where he is currently serving a 54-month term. Other testimony and evidence so far indicates ties to Houston and Jamaica. Finally, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing, Green's alleged drug ring resorted to occasional violence to keep the various suppliers in line, and he once had one of the defendants in the case shot. In addition to telling Sankovitz last week that prosecutors would begin supplying Green and Glynn with the thousands of pages of evidence under court discovery rules, Chisholm said he plans to file a request with Chief Judge Michael Skwierawski asking that his orders sealing criminal complaints and other documents be lifted. Glynn said he hopes to have the evidence against his client sized up by July 12, when he is due to return to court. The charges filed against Green include the racketeering count concerning the distribution of marijuana and cocaine in Milwaukee from April 1996 to Dec. 30, 1999, the day before truth-in-sentencing took effect in the state. That charge carries a prison term of not less than 10 years and not more than 30 years. The other charges fall under truth-in-sentencing and include: two counts of delivery of cocaine; one count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver; one count of attempted delivery of cocaine; one count of delivery of marijuana; one count of conspiracy to deliver cocaine and one count of conspiracy to deliver marijuana. Those charges, upon conviction, carry prison terms totaling 43 years. The defendants who are currently scheduled to plead guilty and could wind up as witnesses against Green are: Ellis, 40, who is serving his sentence in the Fox Lake Correctional Institution; Clifton S. Williams, 27, of West Allis; Edward Chen, 28, of Milwaukee; and Kenneth DuPree, 41, of Milwaukee. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth