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.
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