ANTI-SNITCH WEB SITE SPURS QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCESS TO FEDERAL PLEA AGREEMENTS

Sean Bucci got busted in 2003 for trafficking marijuana.

A former high school classmate, a confidential informant working for
the federal government, led authorities to Bucci's door.

So Bucci decided to get even. He created a Web site called
whosarat.com before he went to prison for 12 1/2 years. He featured
his "snitch" as "Rat of the Week."

The federal court system took notice. His Web site launched a debate
about how much access the public should have to plea agreements --
documents that can reveal who is cooperating with the federal government.

That debate is no more obvious than in the Quad-Cities' two federal
courthouses.

In Rock Island, the public can see the documents in a visit to the
clerk's office in downtown Rock Island. They are not available online.

In Davenport, the documents were routinely sealed from public view for
several months. However, after inquiries from the Quad-City Times, the
rules are changing.

The lead federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Iowa, which
includes Davenport, agreed last week that his attorneys will more
closely scrutinize which plea agreements they will ask to be sealed.

Attorneys will work on the presumption of openness, said U.S. Attorney
Matthew Whitaker. A request for sealing will have to be approved by
supervisors. The changes will begin May 1.

"After I looked at the situation, I concluded we were sealing too many
plea agreements and we're going to move toward making sure we have a
more calculated system for sealing the important ones," Whitaker said.
Past sealed plea agreements will not be revisited, he added.

Launching a Firestorm

Visitors to whosarat.com are welcomed by a shady character and the
announcement of the Rats of the Week.

The subscription site -- $7.99 for a week, $69.99 for a lifetime
membership -- boasts that it is the largest online database of
government informants and agents.

Bucci launched the site in August 2004, said Chris Brown, a friend of
Bucci's who is now the spokesman for the site. Brown lives in
Massachusetts. Bucci, of North Reading, Mass., is in a federal prison
in Virginia.

"The site is not geared to the person who witnesses a stabbing or
shooting," Brown said. "It's geared towards nonviolent crimes. All
you've done is ratted on someone else."

Regardless, the site launched a firestorm.

The Department of Justice -- the prosecutors -- said it wanted to
eliminate all public Internet access to plea agreements through the
Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER, system.

The Judicial Conference of the United States -- the judges --
disagreed. They gathered public comment which 4-to-1 favored retaining
public online access. No one provided any evidence that anyone had
been harmed by disclosure of information in a federal court file, the
committee led by Judge John Tunheim of Minnesota said.

The judges' committee decided to leave how to handle access up to each
court. It offered several suggestions.

Tunheim follows one of those suggestions. Plea agreements granted in
his court with no security concern are unsealed and filed online. If
attorneys have a substantiated fear for the defendant's safety, the
cooperation provision is removed from the plea agreement, which is
then filed unsealed and online. "My intent then is to have that filed
when any security problem is cleared," he said.

He anticipates a nationwide policy might be necessary.

"My view is that we are a public court system and the public has a
right to know how matters are resolved," Tunheim said.

Web Site Thriving

U.S. Attorney Whitaker's decision for the Southern District of Iowa
comes on the heels of another change at the Davenport courthouse, also
made after questions from a Quad-City Times reporter. Plea agreements
generally were sealed as a matter of routine beginning in early 2007.
Attorneys are now required to make a formal request of the court's
judges.

An analysis of the approximately 185 people indicted in 2007 showed 77
defendants signing plea agreements so far. Of those, 58 are sealed, 17
are open to the public and two were sealed and then unsealed.

Most of the agreements open to the public were approved after the
first of the year. Unsealed plea agreements are available online in
Davenport-based cases.

Chief Judge Robert Pratt could not be reached for comment.

Despite the reduced access to documents in the federal courts, Brown,
the spokesman for whosarat.com, said information continues to come
into the site.

"People have been hating snitches for years. It's one of the first
things you learn as a kid. You did something, be a man, be a woman, be
a human being, own up to it," said Brown, who denies a criminal record
besides motor vehicle violations.

Some people love the site; some people hate the site, he said. The
ones who protest say it puts people in danger. Brown counters, "They
put themselves in danger."

"People have a right to this information. It's public information.
It's not private information," he said.

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HOW TO ACCESS FEDERAL COURT CASES

The nationwide system allows anyone with a password to access cases.
It's called Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER. The
Web site to get a password is pacer.psc.uscourts.gov. Documents cost 8
cents per page.

WHO'S ON WHOSARAT.COM?

. Joseph "Jose" Nache pleaded guilty in November 2006 to distributing
more than 50 kilos of marijuana, distributing more than 100 kilos of
marijuana, using a gun during drug trafficking and kidnapping. A
member of the Lowriders street gang, Nache and his co-defendants
brought large quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the Quad-Cities.
He and others kidnapped and beat a drug runner they thought stole
money from them, until the Davenport police arrived and surrounded the
building.

He agreed that his sentenced could be reduced if he provided
"substantial assistance" to federal authorities. He was sentenced to
19 years in prison.

. Sean Tyree Lewis pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a
firearm in 2005. He was charged after police were called to a fight
between him and his girlfriend in Davenport. During a struggle with
police, officers found a .22 caliber, semi-automatic handgun where the
fight with a police officer started and a 9mm, semi-automatic handgun
in Lewis' jacket.

He agreed that his sentenced could be reduced if he provided
"substantial assistance" to federal authorities. Lewis was sentenced
to 10 years in prison.

. Robert "Spooky" Beason Jr. pleaded guilty in May 2006 to dealing
crack cocaine for five years. He dealt the drug from his house at 1118
10th Ave., Rock Island, and from parking lots and alley near a school.
He agreed that his sentence could be reduced if he cooperated with
federal authorities. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

. Mohammad Shabbir Khan pleaded guilty in June 2006 to wire fraud,
money laundering conspiracy and making a false statement. Khan, a
high-ranking manager for Saudi Arabia-based Tamimi Global Co., pleaded
guilty in June 2006 to providing a KBR manager with a prostitute and
$133,000 in exchange for multimillion-dollar dining hall contracts in
Kuwait and Iraq overseen by an office on Arsenal Island.

He agreed that his sentenced could be reduced if he cooperated with
federal authorities. He was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison.