Pubdate: Wed, 18 August 1999
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
Contact:  P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
Feedback: http://extranet1.globe.com/LettersEditor/
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Author: Shelley Murphy

LAWYER CHARGED IN PLOT TO HIRE KILLER

Police Say Targets Were Two Ex-Clients

A former federal probation officer-turned-criminal defense lawyer was
charged yesterday with paying a purported hitman $11,000 to kill two former
clients in a desperate bid to cover up his involvement in the kidnapping of
a drug dealer.

The arrest of Frederick Ford, 48, of North Andover, who worked in the US
Probation Department for 17 years before leaving seven years ago to practice
law, stunned colleagues who sat red-eyed in the back of US District Court in
Boston as the 6-foot-6 Ford was hauled before a magistrate judge. The
alleged murder-for-hire scheme was described in chilling detail in a court
affidavit that was accompanied by a photograph of Ford meeting outside a
Natick doughnut shop on July 27 with two undercover agents from the US
Department of Labor's racketeering division.

In a secretly tape-recorded conversation, Ford advised one of the agents to
empty an entire clip from an automatic in the victims because, "I just want
them dead. I don't want them to suffer." The affidavit by US Drug
Enforcement Administration Special Agent Joseph W. Desmond doesn't identify
the intended victims, but sources said they are reputed gangsters from
Charlestown.

In fact, Ford tried to arrange for the purported hitman to "eyeball" the
intended victims at the Warren Tavern in Charlestown, but the targets
apparently turned down Ford's invitation to meet for drinks. Ford's motive
for offering the murder contract was allegedly self-preservation.

In his affidavit, Desmond wrote that he and Special Agent Steven P. Mitchell
of the Department of Labor's racketeering division were investigating the
1998 kidnapping of a large-scale marijuana dealer and recently learned that
Ford had instigated the abduction.

Ford allegedly suggested that a former client kidnap the drug dealer and
expected a share of the ransom in return.

The affidavit does not identify the drug dealer, but sources said the kidnap
victim has ties to organized crime in Charlestown. Nobody has been charged
in the abduction, but the investigation is continuing. Ford learned about
the kidnap investigation two months ago and allegedly told a federal
informant that he planned to kill two of the kidnappers - his former clients
- - to keep them from testifying before a grand jury, according to the affidavit.

Ford allegedly considered ambushing one of his former clients in a van, but
was persuaded to hire a hitman by the informant, who was secretly
cooperating with federal authorities.

When the undercover agent posing as a hitman claimed that he primarily
worked with stolen diamonds, Ford allegedly suggested the name of a wealthy
jeweler who would likely pay a significant ransom if the purported hitman
kidnapped the jeweler's son.

Ford even provided the location of a halfway house where the jeweler's son
was staying, according to the affidavit.

The scheme unraveled yesterday when Ford met two undercover agents at the
Sheraton Tara in Framingham and was told his former clients had been killed.
When asked by one of the undercover agents "if he was a religious man and
whether or not his beliefs posed any issues of conscience," according to the
affidavit, Ford replied, "No." In federal court yesterday, the big question
being asked was, "Why?" Ford, a married father of two, was a lawyer without
a lawyer yesterday. He stared blankly around the court as some of his former
colleagues sat in the rear of the courtroom, holding hands.

US Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander ordered Ford held without bail
pending a detention hearing Friday after Assistant US Attorneys Geoffrey
Hobart and Cherie L. Krigsman claimed that he was a flight risk and a danger
to the community.

"Just when you think you can't be surprised, you come up with a case like
this," said US Attorney Donald K. Stern.

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