Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 2004
Source: Duluth News-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2004 Duluth News-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/553
Author: Mark Stodghill, News Tribune Staff Writer

INFORMANT LOSES BID FOR MORE MONEY

COURTS: A jury finds that a police drug informant had a contract with 
Duluth, but that it hadn't been breached.

The world of drugs is a sewer and Robert Jackley was a good swimmer in that 
sewer, Duluth Deputy City Attorney Alison Lutterman told a St. Louis County 
jury Thursday.

Lutterman said Jackley made up his own rules while working as an effective 
drug informant for the Duluth Police Department and the Lake Superior Drug 
Task Force. He is educated, articulate and gifted at deceiving people, she 
said.

"But in this world, this house, this system, there are laws and he has the 
burden of proof," Lutterman told the seven-member jury in her closing argument.

Jurors deliberated four hours and found that Jackley didn't meet that 
burden. He failed to prove the claim in his lawsuit that the city of Duluth 
breached a contract for his services and owed him $61,000 in payment for 
drug dealers he helped bust.

Jurors determined that Jackley did have a contract with the city, which the 
city had denied, but that it hadn't been breached. Jurors awarded him no money.

Juror Tom Napoli, a Proctor artist and the married father of four young 
children, said jurors respected the work Jackley did, but they didn't find 
evidence he had been promised anything more than he was paid.

"We are all very thankful that there are people that would do what he 
does," Napoli said. "We sometimes think we are Mayberry RFD here, but he 
was in the dregs of society. Everybody was wishing we could have done 
something for him, but there wasn't enough evidence for us. There was 
nothing to say that he deserved $61,000. But I thank God for people like 
him. Oh, man!"

Jackley, 48, entered an oral agreement with the city in 1995 to provide the 
Police Department's Special Investigations Unit with information about 
crimes involving gangs, drugs and sex.

He testified that he is a recovered crack cocaine addict. He said he became 
a police informant for the money and because he had seen children 
victimized by the cocaine use of their parents. He said he wanted to 
protect children.

The plaintiff said the agreement was that he would sit down with police 
after all the drug cases he helped make had been resolved and determine the 
amount of money he was owed. He said he was told higher-level drug dealers 
were worth as much as $4,000 to $5,000 each. One retired police 
investigator testified and supported Jackley's claim. Another retired 
investigator and a current department supervisor testified that no such 
offers were made to Jackley.

All of the witnesses for the plaintiff and defense at trial agreed that 
Jackley did good work in helping to bust drug dealers.

Jackley infiltrated gangs of drug dealers from Milwaukee, Detroit and 
Chicago while working for police in Duluth.

Jackley and one retired police investigator said that the plaintiff's work 
led to more than 30 drug arrests and convictions in the Duluth area, 
including the takedown of a major heroin, crack cocaine and prostitution 
ring Jackley called the Milwaukee 7.

According to exhibits provided to jurors by Lutterman, Jackley was paid 
$33,460.96 for information he provided to Duluth police and the Lake 
Superior Drug Task Force between 1995 and 2001. He was paid another $3,595 
to purchase drugs in controlled buys under police supervision and $1,892.78 
in miscellaneous expenses.

The money he was paid for tips ranged from $50 to $2,000. In March 2000, he 
received 15 payments ranging from $50 to $395.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Office of Drug Policy and 
Violence Prevention is designated to make such money available through the 
Federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act to support criminal justice activities.

The 6-foot-5, 178-pound man -- who was once known on Duluth streets as 
"African Dave" -- said he came to the United States from Monrovia, Liberia, 
on a visitor's visa in 1986 because of a civil war in his homeland. He said 
he was a leader of a youth group in which members were slain by a rival 
tribe. His plan was to seek political asylum here.

Jackley, who works as a nursing assistant at a Chisholm nursing home, 
couldn't be reached for comment on the verdict.

"Obviously, we disagree with the jury's verdict, but we respect the jury 
system and their decision," said Todd Deal, Jackley's Virginia attorney. 
"It was a tough case. Robert, I think, would tell you that he and I both 
knew that -- given the evidence -- the decision could go either way. We're 
pleased that the jury found that a contract existed, which, of course, the 
city was denying the existence of a contract at all."

Deal said he would confer with Jackley before deciding whether to appeal 
the verdict.

Lutterman credited Jackley for turning his life around.

"It sounds like he's gotten rid of his drug habit, cleaned up his life, 
gained employment and is living by the rules that regulate our society, and 
for that I congratulate him," she said.
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