BUYING GUN WAS HOFFMAN'S IDEA

Transcripts Released In Investigation

It was Rachel Hoffman's idea to buy the handgun thought to have been
used to kill her in May when a drug sting went bad, according to
documents released Saturday by the Tallahassee Police Department.

That and other details are revealed in more than 500 pages of
transcribed interviews conducted by TPD's internal-affairs
investigators with the officers and Drug Enforcement Administration
agents involved in the operation. Two of Hoffman's friends also were
interviewed.

Included in the transcripts, which were used to compile a 199-page
internal-affairs report made public in late September, is the full
interview with former investigator Ryan Pender, Hoffman's main police contact.

His firing for violating nine department rules was announced the day
the earlier report was released. Four more senior officers were
suspended for two weeks without pay. Chief Dennis Jones and Deputy
Chief John Proctor were reprimanded.

Pender said the 23-year-old Hoffman hoped that buying a gun would
help satisfy the vague terms of her confidential-informant work so
she could more quickly get out of Tallahassee and on with her life.
Hoffman planned to go to culinary school, her friends have said.

Hoffman, a recent Florida State University graduate, had been caught
with about a quarter-pound of marijuana in her apartment in April
when she began working with police.

"She asked, 'Well, if I bought a gun would that ... help my charges?'
" Pender told internal-affairs investigators Danielle Davis and
George Creamer in an Aug. 22 interview. "I said, 'Any charge you get
against him, if you bought anything stolen from him, and he's dealing
with stolen property, that would be a charge. That would help with
substantial assistance."

The gun she was to buy from the two men now charged with her murder
is thought to have been stolen from the car-detailing shop where they
worked days before the doomed operation. If convicted, Andrea Green,
25, and Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, could face the death penalty.

The fact that a gun would be purchased as part of the deal was not
included in Pender's written plan. He pointed out, however, that it
did say that firearms would be present.

Still, Pender conceded he was rushed to get the plan done, according
to the transcript.

"It was a small mistake on my behalf as far as accuracy," he said.

Pender wasn't worried about Hoffman buying a gun, he said, despite
the fact that she had no experience with firearms. He told her not to
touch it and said her desire to purchase one for protection wouldn't
seem strange to the suspects because she was a drug dealer who had
been robbed twice before, the transcripts state.

"Now if (she) were wanting to buy stolen rims, that wouldn't have
made sense," he said.

The transcripts also provide more insight into why Pender was not
concerned about sending Hoffman off alone with $13,000 in cash. It
would have been out of character for her to steal the money, he said,
but if she did flee she'd be easy to find.

"She's a "" as she called it "" a very religious, family-oriented
girl," he said.

Pender also said in the internal-affairs interview that Hoffman was
used to handling lots of money. According to him, she admitted to
moving five to 15 pounds of marijuana a week, an amount worth at
least $26,000. Hoffman's friends, though, described her as a
low-level dealer who wasn't selling that much marijuana.

"So what is $13,000 to her?" he said. "It would be insufficient. It
would be pennies. It wouldn't be worth it."