Pubdate: 12 May 1999
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Copyright: Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact:  707-895-3016
Fax: 707-895-3355
Author: Mark Heimann

DALTON HEARING IN SAN FRANCISCO

MONDAY, MAY 17 at 8 am Redwood Valley resident John Dalton will get a
full evidentiary hearing on Outrageous Government Conduct at the
Federal Courthouse on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.  Judge
Susan Illston has ordered the unprecedented hearng to explore the
conduct of the Drug Enforcement Administration agents who busted
Dalton two years ago on a variety of charges related to marijuana
production.  In their zeal to bust Dalton, DEA Special Agent Mark
Nelson stepped way over the line of acceptable law enforcement
practices; he seduced Dalton's mentally ill wife, telling her she was
a special agent of the DEA. Nelson even assigned Dalton's wife,
Victoria "Tori" Horstman, a "special agent number," which the DEA
refers to in over 30 internal reports.  The DEA now claims Horstman
was never a special agent, in spite of all the references to her by
her DEA ID number.

Agent Nelson convinced Horstman, a longtime cop wannabe, that she was
a "secret agent" so she would place a recording device underneath the
bed she shared with her husband, among other questionable practices.

Nelson, a married man with two children, manipulated an unbalanced
woman with a drinking problem to arrest Dalton.  But Nelson and the
DEA can't have it both ways. If she was an agent, the evidence she
gathered was obtained illegally.  If she's not an agent, the
information she gathered and turned over to Nelson was probably
gathered illegally.  Either way whatever evidence against Mr. Dalton
was obtained by recording devices buried in the marital bower, it is
protected by marital privilege, and as such, should be tossed, gutting
the core of the government's case.  And that's only one aspect of a
DEA investigation so outrageous the entire case risks being thrown out
by Judge Illston.  Famed San Francisco attorney Tony Serra represents
Dalton, so Monday's hearing promises to be quite a show.  Shari
Greenberger, of Serra's office, wrote the motions which won Dalton the
hearing --- a hearing believed to be unprecedented at the federal
level.  That part of the public interested in tracking out-of-control
police agencies like the DEA, are encouraged to attend and lend John
Dalton and his attorneys their support.
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