DRUG CASE - BRIDGER WITNESS UNRELIABLE

RED LODGE - In the end, it was the undercover informant for a Bridger Police
Department sting operation who was stung.

Brandon Black, a bartender and police wannabe, was a key witness for the
prosecution in a felony drug case that had a hearing Monday on a defense
motion to dismiss on the grounds that Lagina Carter was a victim of police
entrapment. Carter, who won a sexual harassment case against the city in
February, alleged she was targeted by the police because of the harassment
case and hounded until she gave Black roughly three grams of marijuana in
October 1999. Carter was charged under a state statute that treats giving
drugs to someone the same as selling, regardless of the amount.

With conflicting testimony provided during the two and one-half hour-hearing
before District Judge Blair Jones about how many attempts Black made to get
Carter to sell him marijuana, the critical testimony came about whether
Black himself used pot.

Black repeatedly denied personal use when questioned by Carter's defense
attorney, Jeffrey Michael of Billings. Black said he knew about marijuana
because he had friends who were users, even naming those friends. Black said
he knew Carter sold marijuana from his friends and his job as a bartender at
the Buckeye Bar where Carter was a customer. Black alleged Carter offered
him $500 if he became a Bridger policeman to ignore her drug use and
transactions.

But when Black denied the third time that he used pot himself, Michael
flourished a photograph from his pocket.

"What does this picture show," Michael asked.

"Me smoking in the Buckeye," Black said.

"And what are you smoking" Michael asked.

"Looks like a marijuana joint," Black said.

Shortly after that exchange, Carbon County Attorney A.W. "Tony" Kendall
asked for a recess to confer with Michael. When they returned Kendall asked
that the felony charge be reduced to a misdemeanor possession charge with a
recommended sentence of a $50 fine.

While not conceding the entrapment motion, Kendall told the court, he would
agree to the reduced charge based on Carter's admission that she possessed
marijuana.

"Basically the key witness was impeached," Kendall said afterwards. "Brandon
Black just wasn't a reliable witness."

Jones accepted the prosecution recommendation.

"There's more to this case than meets the eye," Jones told Carter during
sentencing. "You're fortunate to have had such good counsel, but let this be
a warning about use, possession or contemplation to sell dangerous drugs.
Drugs are decimating our country and I for one certainly don't condone or
countenance behavior involving illegal acts."

Jones suspended a six-month jail sentence while imposing the $50 fine.

Kendall said when the lack of credibility of Black's testimony was revealed,
he had little recourse but to settle the case.

"There's a lesson for small towns in this," he said. "They may think there's
rampant drug use and they may have good intentions to stop it, but they need
to get outside help with these kind of undercover operations."

For Carter the case ends more than two years of controversy between her and
the city. In May 1999, after repeatedly being subjected to sexual overtures
from then mayor Bob Krall while working for the city works department, she
filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Bureau. The bureau's
investigation

concluded her complaint was warranted, stating she suffered from harassment
and job intimidation. Efforts to negotiate a settlement, however, lagged
until February when Carter agreed to a $40,000 settlement. During the period
when the settlement negotiations were conducted Bridger Police began an
undercover operation to nail Carter. Bridger Police Chief Lynn Halvorsen
said his department's efforts were unrelated to the harassment case although
Carter was served a summon on the drug charge a week after the settlement
was reached.

Black, who had applied for an officer job with the department but had been
denied the position, told police he thought he could buy drugs from Carter.
He began as an unpaid informant but was later hired as an undercover
officer. The police tried unsuccessfully to tape a transaction between
Carter and Black. They once established surveillance at a bridge site - with
cameras and recording devices - where Black told them Carter would meet him
to close a drug buy. Carter failed to show. In one day Black made
half-hourly visits to Carter's house attempting to record a transaction but
she either was not home or, as she said, ignored him.

Black also testified that Carter had offered to pay him $500 a month if he
became an officer to ignore her use and selling of marijuana. Carter
testified she was not alone in teasing and joking with him at the bar where
he worked when he talked about becoming a member of the Bridger Police
Department.

"There were a bunch of us at the buddy bar kidding him about we'd give him
$500 for not doing traffic stops or drunk driving stops or $1,000 for
smoking pot, but it was just joking around with him," she stated.

Black acknowledged he wasn't sure how Carter would have $500 to pay him
since she had a low-paying job, testifying once it would come from drug
sales and later from the harassment settlement.

Black's testimony about how the undercover operation was conducted also
conflicted with police records. He testified he had not seen marijuana used
or sold at Carter's house, but police investigative reports stated he
reported he had.

Carter said the only reason she eventually gave a small amount to Black was
because he "hounded and pestered" her, contacting her at home, at work and
at homes of her friends.

But Black's continual denial that he used pot proved the undoing for the
undercover sting. He claimed friends used marijuana, but not around him. He
contended it was never offered to him by his friends. Most of his knowledge
about drug use came from his friends, he stated.

But the picture told a different story, Michael said.

"We're happy what Lagina said all along was proved," Michael said.