DEA AGENT ADMITS HE ABUSED POWERS

Admission Could Hurt Murder Case

Friday, August 31, 2001 - A federal drug agent admitted in court that he
abused his authority to acquire telephone records in a Steamboat Springs
murder case to help police.

The admission by Special Agent Donald Sperry of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration could jeopardize the already troubled case against Thomas
Lee Johnson, accused of stabbing 31-year-old Lori Bases to death in May.

"I misused my authority to get information about a homicide investigation,"
Sperry said Wednesday in a hearing before District Judge Joseph Quinn, who
must determine whether to disqualify the district attorney's office from
the case because of the agent's conduct.

Earlier this month, Sperry had the live-in girlfriend of the case's
original judge arrested on federal drug charges, forcing Judge Joel
Thompson to recuse himself.

Public defender Norm Townsend believes the arrest of the judge's
girlfriend, Billie Jo Vreeman, was an attempt to intimidate Thompson and
force him to step down after Thompson ordered the agent to answer a
subpoena and testify about the phone records only days earlier.

Vreeman was released from jail and has not been charged.

The case against Johnson, meanwhile, hinges in part on telephone records
obtained by Sperry.

Prosecutors say police overheard a telephone conversation between Johnson
and his ex-wife, Michelle Linnebur, in which he admitted to the slaying.

Sperry testified Wednesday that he obtained records from the phone company
by claiming they were needed for a drug investigation, allowing the
Steamboat Springs police to circumvent a requirement to get a search warrant.

"I knew I was stretching it," he said under questioning.

Tom Ward, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's regional office in
Denver, said Sperry's actions are under review.