Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 2005
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc
Contact:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Author: Ellen G. Lahr,  Berkshire Eagle Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/felix+aguirre

UNDERCOVER DRUG BUYS DESCRIBED

PITTSFIELD -- The undercover officer who has been accused of illicit 
conduct during a summer-long drug investigation in Great Barrington
described yesterday how "Jose," his adopted persona, eased into an
open-air, daylight drug culture, where merchandise was plentiful and
few questions were asked. "They rarely asked (about me); in
Pittsfield, they always asked," said Felix Aguirre, 29, who is
employed by the Pittsfield Police Department but was assigned last
summer to the Berkshire County Drug Task Force's Great Barrington
investigation.

During his testimony in the Superior Court trial of 18-year-old Kyle
Sawin, Aguirre described three occasions on which he bought marijuana
from Sawin, on June 30, July 6 and Sept. 3 last year; the
"eighth-ounce" packages cost $50, and  each contained about three
grams of marijuana.

Sawin is among 17 young people facing a minimum of two years of jail
time under the school-zone law; he is one of seven defendants with no
prior record who are accused of small-scale drug transactions.

The Otis teen, whose parents have been sitting hand-in-hand in court
this week, is charged with three counts of marijuana distribution and
three counts of committing a drug violation in a school zone, which
carries a minimum mandatory  two-year jail term.

The trial has generated protest from citizens who oppose the Berkshire
district attorney's prosecution of the school-zone charge against
teens with no prior records.

Spectators in the courtroom yesterday included parents of other
defendants, their lawyers and members of Concerned Citizens for
Appropriate Justice, a grass-roots group that is challenging how the
cases are being prosecuted. Sawin's lawyer, Judith Knight, has laid
groundwork for upcoming defense testimony that Aguirre was aggressive
and persistent with his vendors, and that Sawin was vulnerable and
easily swayed. But Aguirre testified yesterday that Sawin never
resisted or appeared uneasy about selling marijuana. Under questioning
by prosecutor Richard Locke, Aguirre testified that on July 6, he went
with Sawin and Sawin's girlfriend to a set of stairs near the Taconic 
parking lot off Railroad Street. The officer said Sawin took a scale
from his  backpack and measured a $50 bag of marijuana from a larger
package, while his  girlfriend kept watch.

Knight, building on the claim of another defendant that Aguirre had
used drugs and provided alcohol to get friendly with local teens,
began inching toward that allegation in her cross-examination, but
Judge John Agostini  sustained Locke's objection. The allegation
surfaced last week in a pretrial  motion by Mitchell Lawrence of Otis.

Knight, who has not yet begun her defense, tried to undermine
Aguirre's testimony on cross-examination by questioning his
willingness to "live a lie" in order to infiltrate a drug subculture.
She suggested he was eager to impress his  bosses in the Berkshire
County Drug Task Force. "I never did this to prove anything," said
Aguirre, who testified that he has made hundreds of drug buys in seven
years as an undercover officer. "I have nothing to prove to anyone."

Locke laid the groundwork for Aguirre's testimony earlier yesterday
with state police Sgt. David B. Foley, Aguirre's supervisor in the
drug task force. Foley testified that Aguirre "is so good he should
train other people" in undercover work.

He said Aguirre had been personally involved in drug buys that led to
80 arrests in Pittsfield in the late fall of 2003 and early spring of
2004; before that, he had worked undercover for the Springfield Police
Department, making "hundreds and hundreds" of buys. Aguirre was one of
many Springfield municipal employees who were laid off in the spring
of 2003, said Foley. Foley said of Aguirre, "he's the best. He gets
results, he's good." He said Aguirre had been so active doing drug
buys for Pittsfield that his work eventually became too risky. People
were beginning to suspect him, and so he was assigned to the Great
Barrington investigation, Foley said. "We were concerned for his
safety," said Foley.

Foley also testified that Aguirre was under constant supervision and
surveillance by other officers, that he was rarely out of their sight.
Within a day or two of setting up a police surveillance system in the
Taconic parking lot, said Foley, Aguirre made his first drug buy. The
visits by Aguirre into the Taconic lot were visible from inside the
Daily Bread bakery on upper Railroad Street, where officers kept
watch, snapping digital photographs as the action unfolded, according
to other police testimony  yesterday. Meanwhile, a group of roving
plainclothes officers were on constant  watch, in vehicles and on foot.

Great Barrington Police Officer Paul Storti said he spent hours with
Foley watching from the bakery windows, focusing mainly on Aguirre.
Storti testified that Aguirre had no problem making deals. For
instance, Storti said, on a single day, July 6, Aguirre bought drugs
from five different people. Storti, a veteran of the Great Barrington
Police Department, said he sought help from the state police drug
investigators to combat growing crime and drug problems in and around
the Taconic lot last year.

Testimony ended yesterday with Aguirre's cross-examination still in
progress. Also unresolved as of yesterday was whether Agostini would
allow Knight to add  three new defense witnesses to her list.

Locke argued that no new witnesses should be allowed "mid-trial."
Knight replied that Sawin had only recently given her the names of
people who would testify as to Aguirre's conduct.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin