DEA AGENT'S ACTIONS REPRISAL?

Inquiring Judge's Fiancee Arrested

Friday, August 24, 2001 - A federal drug agent in Steamboat Springs
who was ordered by a state judge on Aug. 1 to explain why he had
intervened in a murder case signed an arrest warrant against the
judge's fiancee the day before he was to appear in court.

The fiancee, Billie Jo Vreeman, 36, of Craig, was arrested three days
after the warrant was issued on a charge of aiding and abetting
cocaine distribution. She was freed on an unsecured bond.

The 13-year DEA agent, Donald Sperry, wouldn't comment. His Drug
Enforcement Administration supervisors in Denver defended the arrest,
saying it was the culmination of a year-long investigation into
cocaine dealing in the Steamboat Springs area.

But Vreeman was never named in the investigation, which yielded
indictments against eight people, seven of whom have been arrested.

The public defender who initially questioned why a federal agent
would get involved in a state murder case said the arrest was in
retaliation for the judge's actions.

"I find the timing of all of this incredibly suspicious," attorney
Norm Townsend said. "The DEA had a drug investigation for over a year
and never indicted her.

"We subpoenaed the DEA agent alleging his misconduct in a state
murder investigation, and the day before the hearing he gets an
arrest warrant for the judge's girlfriend. I find that highly
suspicious."

The murder trial of Thomas Johnson has been postponed indefinitely.
Fourteenth District Judge Joel S. Thompson, who three weeks ago
purchased a house with Vreeman, recused himself on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have been asked to be disqualified, and Townsend wants
the DEA evidence suppressed.

Because Thompson recused himself, the case has been turned over to
the Colorado Supreme Court, which will appoint another judge to hear
it.

Johnson, 31, of Steamboat Springs is accused in the May 2000 stabbing
death of Steamboat Springs resident Lori Bases, 31.

Johnson was detained by police that June when a bus he was riding
from California to his parents' home in Longmont stopped in Steamboat
Springs.

Johnson missed his bus and made three phone calls from pay phones.

Police, faced with the laborious task of getting a search warrant for
the phone records, asked Sperry to use his federal subpoena powers to
get the records more quickly, Townsend said.

"That's fraudulent use of federal powers because the records were
obtained without a warrant," Townsend said. "His subpoena stated that
the records were required as part of a criminal investigation being
conducted by the DEA. The DEA had nothing to do with this state
murder investigation. It's an abuse of power."

In June, Townsend filed a motion to suppress the evidence, and on
Aug. 1, he subpoenaed Sperry to appear in court on Aug. 8 to explain
why he got involved in the state investigation.

But the government, on Aug. 6, said Townsend didn't subpoena Sperry
correctly and he didn't have to appear. Sperry signed a criminal
complaint against Vreeman the next day, alleging that she had put
Sperry in touch with a cocaine dealer.

The complaint stated she never had cocaine in her possession and
never sold it to Sperry.