ATTORNEY: FBI 'MANUFACTURED' CRIME

The federal government "manufactured" a crack cocaine trafficking crime
involving three former West Baton Rouge Jail guards, a defense attorney for
one of the men said Tuesday. The first time any of the three men possessed
crack cocaine was when an FBI agent handed it to Gerald Robertson Jr. on
May 28, said Frank Saia, the attorney for former guard Warren Terrell Chapman.

"There's no proof except for the sting, and the government manufactured
that crime," Saia said during a bail hearing in U.S. District Court in
Baton Rouge.

Robertson, 25, of 4164 Mulatto Bend Road; Chapman, 7222 S. River Road,
Addis; and Elliott Jermaine McQuillan, 21, 6956 U.S. 190, each were ordered
released Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Docia Dalby on a $20,000 bond.

They were arrested May 28 in Port Allen after being accused of taking
bribes from inmates in exchange for drugs, cell phones and food.

All three are charged with receipt of a bribe by a public official,
possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and possession of a
firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking offense.

Robertson and McQuillan are also charged with conspiracy to distribute and
possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.

Saia said the FBI brought crack cocaine to the sting because the drug
carries a longer prison sentence than marijuana, which several informants
accused the men of smuggling into the jail. "That's sentence entrapment,"
Saia said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rene Salomon said the three men knew what they were
doing in the alleged smuggling operation.

Robertson and McQuillan were arrested together. Salomon said McQuillan
served as a lookout while Robertson took the bribe money and drugs from the
FBI.

After being arrested, each admitted to smuggling contraband items into the
jail, Salomon said. Robertson was the most explicit of the group, Salomon
said. "He said, 'I came out here to basically protect Mr. Robertson, and I
knew a drug deal was going down,'" Salomon said.

Salomon said the investigation started in December when Troy Lee Cummings,
a federal inmate being held in the jail awaiting sentencing on
drug-trafficking charges, told a federal investigator that he could not
pass a drug test.

The FBI began working with several federal inmates being held in the West
Baton Rouge Parish Jail, said Saia and Angela Lockett, an attorney
representing McQuillan.

"The informants that said this only have something to gain," Lockett said.