Pubdate: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) Copyright: 2004 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. Contact: http://www.knoxnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226 Author: Jamie Satterfield Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) TALK NETS DRUG FELON GOOD DEAL AT SENTENCING Spilling Beans On Pals Cuts Prison Time 55% With one of Knoxville's most prolific cocaine traffickers locked up and clammed up, the federal prosecutor faced a quandary. What could he offer a then-46-year-old guy - facing a life sentence even if he drew the 30-year minimum prison term - to get him to talk? The answer: A shot at freedom before he dies. "It had to be some chance to get out of prison one day and see some life out of it," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings recalled at a hearing Monday. With no promises but the carrot of a sentencing break dangling in front of him, Ronnie "Goodie" Rodgers decided to talk - and talk and talk and talk. For nearly two years, Rodgers, who admitted heading up the Knoxville end of a trafficking organization that piped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Miami to this region, has done little else. He laid out the inner workings of his own organization. He helped authorities build a case against his Miami supplier and put millions in seized assets in governmental coffers. He laid bare his client list, which included members of three inner-city street gangs. He took the witness stand against one of those gangs, doing his part to lead a history-making prosecution of the Imperial Insane Vice Lords as a drug-trafficking organization. He helped rescue an ailing federal prosecution of cocaine conspirator Richard Jones. Even that laundry list likely does not encompass the entirety of Rodgers' confessions. Grand jury testimony he may have given, cases in which the threat of his testimony prompted guilty pleas or insider information he may have offered agents didn't make the public version of his catalog of cooperation. For all that cooperation, Jennings offered Rodgers an extraordinary deal at Monday's sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court - a cut from the 30-year minimum to 13 1/2 years. Federal Judge Thomas Phillips accepted the plea deal, albeit "reluctantly." "Is this a very prolific drug trafficker?" Jennings asked. "No question. Does he have a serious (criminal) background? Certainly." Rodgers has 14 prior felony convictions. At the same time he was running a cocaine empire, he was under the supervision of the state Board of Probation and Parole on a 36-year sentence. "He probably knew the vast majority of drug traffickers in this town," Jennings said. "We knew he had a significant source of supply. Ultimately, we went to the coast, (capturing) Alexis Munoz, the source of supply in Miami (with Rodgers' help). From that respect, the success was prolific for the Eastern District of Tennessee." Munoz is serving a 21-year prison term. Jennings also noted that Rodgers put himself in danger by testifying against the Vice Lords. "This was a dangerous group of people," he said. "It was no small task to ask of this defendant to testify." Jennings termed the decision to offer Rodgers the largest break doled out in this conspiracy case as a "group" effort, pointing to lead investigators FBI Agent Rich Calcagno, Internal Revenue Service Agent Phillip S. Brown and Knoxville Police Department Investigator Chip Braeuner. "It gives (Rodgers) some life to live," Jennings said. Phillips seemed a bit taken aback, despite Jennings' speech. "It's also a 55 percent reduction," the judge said. Rodgers, 48, did his final bit of talking with a prepared speech in which he apologized to his wife, family and the families of those whose lives were ruined by the illegal goods he spent years hawking. "I realize the danger I have caused by the crimes I have committed, and there is no excuse," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin