MAN NABBED ON JUDGE'S TIP EXPECTED TO CUT DEAL

Pot Charges May Be Dropped for Help in Bodenheimer Case

A Metairie man whose 1999 marijuana arrest was triggered by a tip from
state District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's
Office is expected to plead guilty in U.S. District Court today and later
assist authorities in their investigation of Bodenheimer, who has been
indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges.

Joe Danny Perez was scheduled to go to trial today in the 24th Judicial
District Court, but Perez's federal plea is expected to result in state
charges of marijuana possession being dropped, sources close to the
investigation said Monday. Defense attorney Jim Williams had subpoenaed
Bodenheimer to testify after Williams learned from prosecutors last week
that the judge was the confidential informant in the case and that
Bodenheimer was present when Perez was arrested on Oct. 28, 1999.

But interviews and police and court records paint a friendly relationship
between Perez and Bodenheimer, who had acted as Perez's attorney in a civil
case.

Word of Perez's expected agreement with federal authorities capped a day of
activity that began Monday morning in Gretna when state District Judge Ross
LaDart rejected Perez's request to delay his trial. Although prosecutor
Doug Freese acknowledged to LaDart that the state had supplied Williams
with a "substantial bit of information" in the past two weeks, LaDart
refused the request.

LaDart said jury selection would begin today at 9 a.m.

The Relationship

Police and court records give insight into how close Bodenheimer was to
Perez, a flamboyant character who was driving a red Chevrolet Corvette and
carrying more than $3,700 on the night of his arrest, mostly in $100 bills.
According to a report prepared by narcotics agents, when they tried to
search Perez's office, he told them he had been out of town and had left
some keys to the building with his maintenance employee and "his friend,
Ronald Bodenheimer."

The judge's relationship with the alleged drug dealer dates back to the
mid-1990s, when Bodenheimer agreed to represent Perez in some civil
lawsuits, said Nelson Juneau, an investigator with the Jefferson Parish
district attorney's office.

Juneau said Bodenheimer was representing Perez when Juneau joined the
district attorney's office in 1996. At the time, Bodenheimer was working as
a Jefferson Parish prosecutor and was allowed to have a private civil practice.

Even after Bodenheimer left the district attorney's office in late 1997 to
work as a prosecutor in St. Tammany Parish, he and Perez remained friendly,
Juneau said. In 1999, Bodenheimer was elected judge of the 24th Judicial
District Court's Division N. Shortly thereafter, he appeared on the scene
of Perez's drug arrest.

Perez has been convicted in state court of simple battery and aggravated
burglary. He also was convicted in federal court for misprision of a
felony, or being aware of a crime and not reporting it, Jefferson Parish
District Attorney Paul Connick said.

The Arrest

An informant had been talking to narcotic agents about Perez at least since
June 1998, though it's not clear whether that informant was Bodenheimer,
according to court records. A report prepared by narcotics agents indicates
that the informant in 1998 told narcotics agent Albert Baudier that he was
"very close" to Perez and several of his alleged accomplices. The informant
said they maintained a drug ring in which two of Perez's friends would
travel to Texas to buy marijuana and Perez would drive it back to New
Orleans. The marijuana would then be split it into 1-pound packages for
distribution.

On Oct. 28, 1999, a "reliable confidential source," now identified as
Bodenheimer, contacted officials and told them Perez would be receiving a
large shipment of marijuana that night from a Mexican driving in from
Texas, the incident report said. Agents began watching Perez's home that
afternoon and later followed him to his business, Grand Prix Motors at 3000
Lime St. Several of Perez's alleged accomplices began arriving as the night
wore on, one driving a brown convertible Jaguar.

The police incident report indicates that Perez was seen carrying a large
plastic bag from a car driven by two Hispanic men. The bag was never found.
Defense attorney Williams has challenged the testimony of deputies who at
first testified that the two men were not followed when they left the shop
but later said they were followed but were "lost in traffic."

Nobody has disputed, however, that around 9:56 p.m., Bodenheimer drove up
in his white Ford Explorer and started talking in the parking lot with
Perez and others. Less than two hours later, Perez started turning off the
shop's lights as everybody, including the judge, prepared to leave.

At a pretrial hearing in March, narcotics agent Baudier said, "The lights
were being turned off and everybody was getting into their vehicle and
departing, at which time (several individuals were stopped), Joe Danny
Perez was stopped, Ronald Bodenheimer was stopped. All of these individuals
were meeting in front of" Perez's business.

Baudier and a deputy stopped Bodenheimer, who had another man in his
vehicle, the report said. The officers read them their Miranda rights, and
Bodenheimer let them search his vehicle. Baudier's report said the car "was
searched and (Bodenheimer) was released on the scene." His passenger was
arrested and taken back to the shop, where Perez was arrested after a
search found marijuana in the trunk of a 1981 Mercedes Benz.

Perez and five others were booked with several counts of possession of
marijuana and the drug Ecstasy as well as on drug distribution charges.
Prosecutors later dropped charges against at least two suspects, and two
others have been sentenced to probation terms of three years and four
months, court records show.

Sexual Motive Alleged

On Monday, defense attorney Williams asked LaDart to delay Perez's trial
after he learned of Bodenheimer's role in his client's arrest.

State prosecutors also told Williams that when Bodenheimer was questioned
by deputies on the night of Perez's arrest, Bodenheimer told them he had
had an ongoing sexual relationship with a female acquaintance of Perez's,
court records said.

Williams said he would not speculate on reasons for Bodenheimer's tip to
the deputies and to his presence at the arrest.

Williams, who said last week that he had intended to subpoena Bodenheimer
to testify in Perez's state court trial, told LaDart on Monday morning that
he wanted to "investigate the veracity of (Bodenheimer's) information to
the deputies" who arrested Perez and to try to learn "what happened to lead
(Bodenheimer) to become the confidential informant."

Bodenheimer's attorney, Eddie Castaing, told Williams that if the judge
were subpoenaed, he would advise him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right
against self-incrimination. Williams said he would challenge Bodenheimer if
he invoked the Fifth because he wanted to question the judge about
something that has nothing to do with existing federal charges against him.

Those charges involve an alleged plot to plant the narcotic OxyContin in
the vehicle of a man who had been complaining to federal authorities about
activities at an eastern New Orleans marina owned by Bodenheimer. The judge
and Curley Chewning of Chalmette were both indicted 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 marijuana charge against Perez.
Chewning has pleaded guilty to his role in the plot in exchange for
assisting federal investigators in their probe of the judge, who has
pleaded innocent to the same charges.