Pubdate: Fri,  1 Aug 2003
Source: LA Weekly (CA)
Contact:  2003, L.A. Weekly Media, Inc.
Website: http://www.laweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/228
Author: Christine Pelisek 
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1071/a10.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/paraphernalia

AMBUSHED: SOBER JUSTICE

The Long List Of Problems With Bush's Nominee For DEA Chief

Drug reform may go the way of the bong thanks to President Bush's choice of
Karen Tandy as the new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The 49-year-old Texan has spent most of her career prosecuting drug cases.
Her repertoire includes busting mail-order bong sellers, including comedian
Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame, in Operation Pipe Dreams, and those in
the throes of California and Oregon's state-approved medical-marijuana
programs.

That's not all. The Nation uncovered numerous instances of excessiveness
while Tandy worked as a U.S. Justice Department prosecutor, including a case
in which she and two federal agents were prohibited from participating in
the investigation of major marijuana traffickers Christopher and Robert
Reckmeyer in the Eastern District of Virginia in 1984 because they read
documents the court ruled were protected by attorney-client privilege. In
the same case, a year later, the Washington Post reported that Tandy
withheld 60,000 pages of documents until three days before the trial began.

The Nation also reported that Tandy, while negotiating a plea agreement in
1982 in Virginia with first-time offender Michael Harvey, altered the
wording without the consent of Harvey, his attorney or the court, which set
him up for another conviction in a South Carolina federal court. In 1987,
Tandy failed to hand over exculpatory evidence in the cocaine-distribution
case of Alfredo Arroyo, which resulted in an acquittal after the jury
concluded he had been entrapped.

Last month, Tandy sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Next is the
full Senate.
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