SET-UP ALLEGED
Drug Charge Follows Harassment Settlement

(Bridger) - A woman who settled a sexual harassment case against the
mayor and city last week was charged with one count of felony criminal
distribution of dangerous drugs this week, according to information
filed in Montana 22nd Judicial District Court.

Lagina Carter, 37, is accused of giving about 3 grams of marijuana to
an undercover agent working for the Bridger Police Department last
October. Carter allegedly agreed to sell more marijuana to the
undercover agent later, according to Carbon County Attorney Tony
Kendall. The law regards selling, bartering, exchanging, offering to
sell or giving away any dangerous drug under the same criminal
statute, according to Kendall.

Carter was served with a summons for arraignment Feb. 22, but was not
arrested, according to Kendall.

"I don't consider her a flight risk," Kendall said.

Carter, who was an employee with Bridger's public works department
until January, filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint
with the state Human Rights Bureau in May 1999. The complaint alleged
that then-Mayor Bob Krall continually subjected her to unwanted sexual
advances and then threatened her job if she pursued her complaint.
After months of negotiations and an investigation by the state Human
Rights Bureau, the case was settled Feb. 1 when the city agreed to pay
Carter $40,000. The settlement was approved by the Human Rights
Bureau, according to Carter's attorney, John Yoder of Billings.

But while Carter's harassment case was being investigated, Bridger
police were investigating Carter. Tipped by an 18-year-old Bridger
man, Brandon Black, who was applying for a position with the Bridger
Police Department, an undercover operation began with Black as an
informant, according to the affidavit field by Kendall.

The investigation began after Carter allegedly approached Black the
day his application was being considered by the city council and
"offered to pay him $500 a month to keep secret her marijuana sales,"
the affidavit states.

Black informed Bridger Police Officer Tom Webb of the encounter with
Carter and the city police decided to conduct an undercover
investigation, tape recording Black's conversations with Carter,
according to Kendall.

On Oct. 29, Black informed Bridger Police Chief Lynn Halvorsen that
Carter agreed to sell him marijuana. The next night Black met Carter
at her house in Bridger, where she gave him approximately 3.1 grams
"to tide him over," according to the affidavit. She promised to sell
him a quarter-ounce (about 7 grams) later that evening. No subsequent
transactions took place, Kendall said.

If convicted, Carter faces a term of not less than one year or more
than life or a fine not to exceed $50,000 or both, according to Kendall.

Carter told The Gazette she thinks the investigation was an effort to
"set me up" and denied she engaged in drug sales.

"This whole thing was them trying to get me because I filed that
complaint," she said. "They tried to bust me for a DUI and that didn't
work so they tried this. I decided to play along hoping it would all
backfire in their faces," she said.

Carter said Black "pestered me about selling him some pot and I
wouldn't do it." She said she hoped the police would search her car,
her house and her person because "they'd find nothing and look dumb."

"I knew what he was doing and I thought I'd play along just to get
even," she said.

Carter acknowledged she gave Black "some pot, I guess. I didn't sell
it. It wasn't even mine. I thought 'OK, now let's see where this
goes,' thinking they'd look silly when they came searching and found
out it was all a joke."

Carter said Officer Tom Webb was the same officer who stopped her on
suspicion of drunken driving earlier that summer. She said that after
giving her a sobriety and breath test he made her go to Red Lodge,
where the tests were repeated.

"After all that, I wasn't guilty. He didn't charge me and he had to
drive me home. He was just looking for anything he could get me on.
Heck, I said I'd take whatever test they wanted to give me, even a
urine test to show I didn't use pot."

Carter said Webb was also the officer who witnessed one of the
incidents with Krall but denied it when she asked him to report it.
She said he was present the day "Krall put his hands down my pants as
I was learning to operate the backhoe. But he wouldn't do anything. He
said he didn't see anything."

Webb's account later was disputed by a Bridger justice of the peace
who told the state investigator she heard Webb discuss the incident.

"He (Webb) was out to get me," Carter said. "This is just more of the
same."

Neither Halvorsen nor Webb returned phone calls to discuss the case,
but Kendall said the filing of charges was not related to the
harassment issue in Bridger.

"I filed when the investigation was complete and I had the information
I needed," he said. "I wasn't involved in the other issue."

Yoder said he didn't have enough information to comment on the drug
charge against his client, but he said it would not alter the facts or
the settlement in the harassment case.

"The evidence supported my client's version of what happened," he
said. "As far as the settlement, the city signed it, the Human Rights
Bureau approved it Feb. 3 and the check has been cut and is in the
mail."

Yoder said the drug charge shouldn't bear on Carter's truthfulness on
the harassment matter.

"We don't have all the facts," he said. "She's only been accused at
this point, not convicted."