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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D