Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2001 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: Mike McPhee OURAY DRUG CASE UNDER FIRE Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - Defense attorneys in a 1999 Ouray County drug case lashed out at the government Tuesday in federal court, saying kingpins were given sweetheart deals in exchange for testimony against their seven clients, who are small-time users. But assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cassidy told the jury during opening statements that the methamphetamine ring had penetrated all corners of the community, from a former undersheriff and a former deputy clear down to waitresses on Main Street. Of the 19 people indicted two years ago for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the rugged, mountainous county in southwestern Colorado, 12 have pleaded to charges or had them dismissed. Seven defendants, including former Undersheriff John Radcliff and former sheriff's deputy Leroy Todd, chose to argue their cases before a jury, which was seated Monday night for an expected three-week trial, presided over by U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham. Cassidy said the two officers took advantage of their positions and stayed abreast of arrests and drug stops by their access to police communications. He even accused Todd of having sex with kingpin Perry Wherley's girlfriend, Alicia Davis, while waiting for another deputy to return to the trailer with a search warrant. He said Todd then allowed Davis to ransack the trailer before the warrant was served. Attorney Tom Hammond, representing defendant Kim Hojnowski, told the jury the methamphetamine ring got started when Wherley and his friend Brenda Paul began dealing in order to pay for a house they wanted to build. The two had a falling out, Hammond said, and Paul was suspected of ratting on Wherley. Wherley's sister, Lisa Radcliff, the wife of the undersheriff, was a heavy user, Hammond said, and went to the cops about Paul. "This was a family that turned on each other," he said. "And the biggest fish are now the government's witnesses." Wherley, Paul and Lisa Radcliff have pleaded guilty to distribution charges and are awaiting sentencing. The length of their sentences will be determined by how well they cooperate with the government, prosecutors said. Ouray County Sheriff Dominic Mattivi, who was a deputy in 1997, testified that he and another deputy went to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in March 1998 to report suspected drug dealing by deputies. They did so without telling Sheriff Jerry Wakefield or Undersheriff Radcliff. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth