DRUG INFORMANTS FACE REPRISALS

Informants who work with police face reprisals that range from name-calling
to snubs, from vandalism to even physical attack or death.

But their work - being done as much for their benefit as for the benefit of
police and prosecutors - is an essential part of the fight against crime
and drugs, officers say.

And rarely, Fox Valley drug agents said, is an informant assaulted or killed.

Neenah and Winnebago County officials confirmed Wednesday that Adam
Schultz, a 21-year-old Neenah man who was killed in Chicago last December,
was working as a drug informant.

Police Tuesday arrested Marc Norfleet, 33, at his Town of Menasha home on a
murder warrant from Chicago, alleging he had Schultz killed because Schultz
had worked with police in several drug investigations.

It isn't clear how Norfleet became suspicious of Schultz as a possible
informant, Winnebago County Dist. Atty. Joseph Paulus said. Neenah Police
"went to great lengths to protect Adam Schultz," he added, but he claimed
Norfleet was "prepared to take very serious steps to protect his drug-trade
business."

It's at least the second time a drug informant working with police here has
been executed, according to Paulus.

He said that in December 1989, Mike Fitzgibbon was shot in the head and
dumped through the ice in Lake Buttes des Morts by Mark Price and Richard
Pease because they felt he had been working against them with police.

"It underscores the fact that even right here in the Valley we have a drug
culture and a violent drug culture, and the police departments' efforts to
uncover drug trafficking is a dangerous endeavor," Paulus said

Using informants is vital if police are going to move from users and small
dealers to large suppliers, said Outagamie County Lt. Roger Price, who
headed the Lake Winnebago Metropolitan Enforcement Group (MEG) for nearly
11 years.

"Not every case requires an informant to be effective, but any type of
narcotics enforcement task force would use informants," he said.

With MEG, he said, informants were sometimes paid, but the vast majority
were working with police in an attempt to get charges against them reduced
or for consideration when they were sentenced for their crimes.

"You will not be paid for a case if you have charges against you that you
will get consideration on," Price said. "(The informant will get) paid or
have their charges reduced. You will not get both."

He said the large majority of MEG informants were working not for cash, but
for reduced charges or sentences. Officials would not say Wednesday why
Schultz was working with police.

Brad Dunlap, an agent with the state Division of Narcotics Enforcement
(DNE) for 10 years, who will supervise MEG starting Oct. 1 when the state
Justice Department assumes control, said informants, especially in drug
cases, are working to "better their life."

"The vast majority of informants that are brought to our attention are
individuals that have been arrested, and they are interested in bettering
their lot in life and getting consideration."

And the informants are turning against friends - often lifelong friends -
and understand there are risks, he said.

"Most of these people are obviously burning a bridge, and now they are
being asked to give evidence against this person.

"Most of them usually have some fear or concern.

"Obviously nobody wants to be labeled, and that's the least of their
worries, and as you up the ante they are concerned about their safety.

"I'd say the vast majority of informants we work with express some kind of
concern, but the vast majority are unfounded."

There have been times, however, when DNE agents felt an informant's
concerns were valid enough that they have installed portable alarms at the
informant' s home, he said.

But instances of vandalism or physical retaliation are few, he said.

"For the most part that is what we see - the name calling and the cold
shoulder," he said.

The decision to work with police is made by the informant, and the police
officer or drug agent is just part of the system working against crime,
Dunlap said.

"We are one small piece of the puzzle in the whole criminal justice system,
and we are the conduit that informant was working with to better his lot in
life."

When an informant is harmed, the officer he was working with will feel the
effects too, Dunlap said.

"It's something the officer is going to feel some degree of remorse about.
It's not something that is going to be taken lightly by an officer.

Neenah Police Detective Dan Dringoli, who had worked with Schultz, called
the 21-year-old's murder a "troubling case."

"Seeing people who help police get killed is terrible," he said. "Now we
don 't want people to be afraid to come forward. Without citizen
involvement, we can't solve (a lot of cases)."