DRUG CASE DROPPED; DEPUTY'S ACTION BLAMED

Prosecutors were prompted to dismiss charges against a drug informant
in Novato after she accused a county narcotics agent of making sexual
advances toward her.

The episode could also prompt legal challenges to other cases
involving the detective, Tyrone Williams, who was reassigned from the
Marin County Major Crimes Task Force after the allegations surfaced.

Sheriff's officials said they were barred from discussing personnel
actions or internal investigations, even if the sexual misconduct
allegations against Williams were found to be meritless.

But authorities did conclude that Williams violated a key department
policy - he made contact with the informant without another detective
present. Because of this breach, prosecutors would not have been able
to refute the suspect's allegations if the case went before a jury.

"We did not feel we would be able to sustain our burden of proof,"
said District Attorney Ed Berberian.

Williams, who joined the sheriff's office in 2005 after working for
the California Highway Patrol, declined to respond to the
allegations.

"I don't want to comment on that," he said.

The accuser in the case is Sarah Gean Rawlins, a 19-year-old former
Ignacio woman charged with selling drugs to an undercover task force
detective several times in March and April 2007, according to court
documents.

Police said Rawlins sold less than an ounce of marijuana to the
undercover agent three times, and on one occasion conspired with
another suspect to sell the agent nearly an ounce of crystal
methamphetamine.

Rawlins agreed to become an informant for the task force, the county
narcotics unit overseen by the sheriff's office, when police said her
cooperation might help her case get dismissed, according to a motion
filed by her defense attorney, Gary Kauffman. Rawlins worked under
the direction of Williams, Kauffman said.

Under sheriff's department policy, a detective must have another
investigator present whenever meeting with an informant. This
safeguard is intended to prevent the informant from making
unchallenged police misconduct claims that could jeopardize the
credibility of the investigation - and torpedo the case.

But according to Kauffman's motion, Williams not only met Rawlins
repeatedly without a police colleague present but he also made sexual
advances toward her, brought wine to her Ignacio Lane apartment and
engaged in other improprieties.

"Agent Williams sexually pressured, cajoled, and engaged in illegal
and unethical behavior constituting outrageous governmental
misconduct during the time Ms. Rawlins was his informant," Kauffman
wrote.

The sheriff's department opened an internal investigation into
Rawlins' allegations, according to Kauffman's motion, which he filed
Dec. 13. The motion demands the release of all documents and evidence
pertaining to the inquiry, conducted by sheriff's Sgt. Ken Frey, who
does not work on the task force.

The next week - before a judge could rule on the motion - the
district attorney's office dropped the pending drug case against
Rawlins, rendering the motion moot.

Rawlins has left Ignacio and is a fashion and design student at City
College of San Francisco, according to Kauffman. He said Rawlins has
filed no civil litigation against the sheriff's department and did
not wish to be interviewed.

"She just wants to put this nightmare behind her," he
said.

Efforts to reach Rawlins were unsuccessful.

Williams was moved off the task force - a plum assignment, especially
for a relatively new hire - and assigned to the county jail.

Sheriff Robert Doyle said personnel confidentiality laws precluded
him from commenting on internal investigations, or even confirming
their existence.

Doyle said Williams was reassigned because "he's a deputy sheriff and
deputy sheriffs do a variety of work in the organization."

Two of Williams' task force supervisors, Lt. Rick Russell and Sgt.
Rudy Yamanoha, have also been assigned to new duties since the
episode. Doyle said the reassignments of both supervisors, who had
been on the task force for several years, were in the works before
the Rawlins allegations surfaced.

The Rawlins case is not the first time the Marin County Major Crimes
Task Force, created in 1977 as an interagency narcotics unit, has
been involved in a sex-related dispute. In 1990, a Sausalito police
officer working on the task force filed a lawsuit accusing two other
task force detectives of sexually harassing her.

The case was settled when the task force gave her $300,000 in money
seized from drug dealers. The use of confiscated drug money - which
was supposed to be used for fighting crime - was later called
improper after probes by the county grand jury, the state attorney
general's office and the U.S. attorney's office.

The Rawlins case could prompt legal challenges from other defendants
investigated by Williams. In a series of rulings, beginning with a
1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brady vs. Maryland, the courts
have said that prosecutors cannot withhold from defendants any
potentially favorable information that could be "material to guilt or
punishment."

This so-called "Brady material" includes personnel information that
might cast doubt on a testifying police officer's conduct or
credibility. Therefore, in cases where Williams was involved,
defendants could be entitled to information about the Rawlins case,
including the internal investigation.

"Whatever 'Brady' obligation, if there is any, we will comply with
that," said Berberian, the district attorney.