FRIEND OF JUDGE MAKES PLEA DEAL IN DRUG CASE

Perez To Testify Against Unnamed Member Of Legal Community

A Metairie man with ties to state District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer
promised to detail for federal authorities how a "close friend in the law
enforcement community" aided him in his drug smuggling operations in a deal
Tuesday that apparently has netted federal authorities another witness in
their probe of the embattled jurist.

Joe Danny Perez pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to a drug
charge stemming from an Oct. 28, 1999, arrest at his Metairie business at
which Bodenheimer was present. Authorities have said Bodenheimer was the
confidential informant who told deputies Perez was involved in drugs.

Neither federal prosecutor Mike Magner nor Perez's attorney, Jim Williams,
would say whether the "close friend" is Bodenheimer, who has been indicted
by a federal grand jury on drug conspiracy charges in a different case.

But Williams and others have said Bodenheimer and Perez knew each other,
with Bodenheimer -- before he became a judge -- representing Perez on a
civil matter. In addition, narcotics agents wrote in a report that when
they tried to search Perez's office at Grand Prix Motors on Lime Street on
Oct. 28, 1999, Perez said he had been out of town and left keys to the
building with a maintenance worker and "his friend, Ronald Bodenheimer."

Eddie Castaing, Bodenheimer's defense attorney, said Tuesday he has no
information to indicate Bodenheimer is the person referred to in the court
document.

"And Judge Bodenheimer denies that he had any drug involvement with Danny
Perez or anyone else, except that he was the person who reported
information that he had heard about Perez and that led to Perez and others
being busted," Castaing said.

Magner laid out for U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier the factual basis for
Perez's guilty plea. Manger said that, among other things, Perez told FBI
agents "that as part of his course of dealings, he routinely confided to a
close friend in the law enforcement community when he would make trips to
Houston carrying large sums of cash to be used for the purchase of drugs."

"Perez and the friend arranged a cover story in the event that he was
stopped by the police carrying the currency: Perez would falsely state, and
the friend would later falsely confirm, that Perez was en route to purchase
an expensive vehicle for the friend. Perez further stated that the friend
did other things of a corrupt nature which assisted Perez's drug
trafficking in return for Perez providing the friend things of value."

Motives For Tip Unclear

Perez began cooperating with federal authorities after the Jefferson Parish
district attorney's office told his attorney last week that Bodenheimer
tipped deputies off to Perez's business, which was allegedly involved in drugs.

A confidential informant had told police about Perez's operations at least
since June 1998, records show, though officials have not said if that
informant was Bodenheimer.

But narcotics agents have said it was Bodenheimer who led police to Perez's
business in Oct. 28, 1999, and told them Perez would be receiving a large
shipment of marijuana.

As agents watched Perez's auto detailing shop, they saw Perez and several
other people arrive that night, including Bodenheimer, who drove up in his
white Ford Explorer, according to narcotics agents' reports.

The judge stayed for about two hours, until everybody started leaving.
Police stopped and searched all vehicles, including Bodenheimer's, the
report indicates.

In addition to Perez, Dexter Wood Jr. and his son Dexter Wood III of
Metairie, Don Dowling Jr. of Bush, Patricia Federer of Metairie and Randall
Brown were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. Perez and
Wood Jr. also were charged with possession with intent to distribute the
drug Ecstasy, records show.

Not all faced prosecution. Jefferson Parish prosecutor Doug Freese said the
Woods were not prosecuted because there was little connecting them to the
narcotics. Dexter Wood Jr., though, was sentenced to three years probation
in November 1999 in a separate drug case. Charges against Dowling were
dismissed, too.

Records show Federer was sentenced to four months probation in 2000.
Records on Brown were expunged in 2001, according to sources familiar with
the case.

Williams, Perez's attorney, said he has "no idea" why Bodenheimer, as a
sitting judge, had acted as a confidential informant about Perez's drug
activities. "It really makes no sense," Williams said.

Bodenheimer told sheriff's deputies on the night of Perez's arrest that he
had an ongoing sexual relationship with Perez's girlfriend but Williams
said he didn't know if that was part of Bodenheimer's motive, according to
court records.

Perez, who was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday in 24th Judicial District
Court, met with federal officials during the weekend, Williams said.

State and federal prosecutors worked on the federal plea agreement Monday,
and District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. dropped state drug charges Tuesday
so the U.S. attorney's office could "adopt" the case against Perez in
return for Perez's cooperation in the Bodenheimer investigation.

If Perez had been convicted in Jefferson Parish Judge Ross LaDart's court
of possession of the Ecstasy tablets and eight pounds of marijuana, he
could have received 15 years to possibly life in prison, "depending on the
legal interpretation of his prior crimes," Connick said.

In 1992, Perez was convicted of aggravated burglary and sentenced to three
years probation. Two years later, he was convicted of misprision of
justice, or failing to report a crime. It was not clear Tuesday what
Perez's sentence was in that case.

"I feel very comfortable about this because we had agreed to cooperate in a
very important ongoing investigation" by the federal government, Connick
said, adding that his office has been working with federal authorities in
the Perez case for two years.

In federal court, Perez admitted to Judge Barbier that he had conspired to
possess with intent to distribute 74 tablets of Ecstasy, which were seized
by deputies at Perez's business.

The Ecstasy tablets were found inside a brown prescription bottle in the
auto detailing shop, police records say, and the marijuana was found in the
trunk of a Mercedes Benz parked in the lot. Perez maintains that the
marijuana was not his, Williams said.

Perez could receive up to 20 years in federal court for the Ecstasy
conspiracy charge, plus a $1 million fine, but federal sentencing
guidelines call for a sentence of four to 10 months for the number of
tablets police say he was found with, Williams said.

Perez is expected to be sentenced at a later date.

Not The Only One

Perez was released from federal custody under a $25,000 bond Tuesday
afternoon by U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore. The bond was set several hours
after his guilty plea so federal authorities could investigate some traffic
and municipal attachments that had been issued on Perez in Jefferson Parish.

Neither prosecutors nor Perez's attorney would discuss details on what
information Perez is expected to provide.

Earlier this month, a Chalmette man pleaded guilty to federal charges in
exchange for testimony against Bodenheimer.

Curley Chewning was indicted with Bodenheimer by a federal grand jury on
one count of drug conspiracy and three counts of using a cell phone to
commit a crime, in a case unrelated to the Perez case. Chewning entered a
guilty plea in exchange for assisting federal authorities in the investigation.

Authorities say the men were plotting to plant OxyContin in the vehicle of
an informant who had complained to federal authorities about activities,
including drug activities, at a marina owned by Bodenheimer in eastern New
Orleans.

Bodenheimer, who was suspended from the bench with pay pending the case's
outcome, has pleaded innocent and is scheduled for trial Sept. 23.