FEDS SOUGHT BIGGER DRUG DEAL TO ENSURE A STIFFER PRISON SENTENCE

Michael Staufer lost his minimum wage job at about the same time he was
robbed and beaten in August 1992 on a Los Angeles street.

Times were so tough he lived in a garage.

So when a friend named Scott suddenly pressed Staufer to find him 10,000
hits of LSD, Staufer wondered if the guy might have been high on the drug
himself.

Staufer was 21 years old, partied hard and used LSD when he could afford
it. Once, he’d bought 20 or 25 hits of the drug that he resold to his
friends, but he wasn’t a dealer, and he certainly didn’t have the money to
finance 10,000 hits.

What Staufer didn’t know was that federal agents had busted Scott on drug
charges and promised him leniency if he would help the feds snare other
drug dealers.

So Scott pressed Staufer, hoping to set him up in a drug deal that agents
could then bust. So persistent was Scott that Staufer almost lost a
part-time job he’d landed because of Scott’s repeated phone calls.

Finally, Staufer gave in and was introduced to the supposed buyer, who was
an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The agent wanted
10,000 hits of LSD.

Staufer’s LSD supplier, who barely knew Staufer, initially resisted the
deal because he knew Staufer was not in a position to pay for it. Then, the
dealer told Staufer he would sell him 5,000 doses of the drug.

That wasn’t good enough for the undercover agent, who insisted on buying
10,000, knowing it would double Staufer’s prison time. After several
conversations, Staufer finally cajoled his supplier to provide the larger
amount. He was arrested when he showed the LSD to the agent.

A judge sentenced Staufer to the mandatory 12-year sentence federal law
required.

"[The judge] explained to Staufer that the court of appeals had just
reversed him for giving a life sentence to a man who had killed his wife by
throwing her off a ship where they were spending their honeymoon, and [the
judge] expressed his disapproval of a system that compelled him to ‘give
Mr. Staufer for the transaction more time in prison than [he was]
authorized to give a man who murdered his wife on their honeymoon,’ "
according to Staufer’s appeal.

An appellate court eventually affirmed his conviction, but it was sent back
to the lower court for re-sentencing. The court ruled his sentence should
be reduced because of "sentencing entrapment" -- the government forced
Staufer into a bigger deal than he could really handle, just so the feds
could double his prison term.

Staufer’s sentence was reduced to just more than six years.

Checked-by: Richard Lake