SUIT SHINES LIGHT ON CONSULTANTS: SHASTA SHERIFF MUM ON ROLE OF TWO CONTRACTORS

Attorneys representing defendants who have accused north state drug
agents of racial profiling say the Shasta County Sheriff's Office is
paying a consultant $91,104 for analytical research, yet the agency
claims to have no records of what is actually being analyzed.

Assistant Federal Defender Lauren Cusick said that her office
subpoenaed the North State California Multi-jurisdictional
Methamphetamine Enforcement Team (Cal-MMET) for records generated by
consultant Brett Hayslett.

The sheriff's office, which manages Cal-MMET, responded to the
subpoena in writing this month, saying, "There were no records or
documents in existence" related to her request.

"Either they're lying, or they're paying $91,000 a year to generate
nothing," Cusick said Friday. "One of those things is true."

Sheriff Tom Bosenko countered Friday that his office responded to the
request "with what was requested and what was within the law."

He wouldn't elaborate.

Citing the sensitivity of Cal-MMET's criminal investigations, Bosenko
declined to divulge what exactly Hayslett does for Cal-MMET other
than to say "he analyzes information" regarding criminal and drug cases.

"The information he does provide to Cal-MMET is
law-enforcement-sensitive," Bosenko said. "It wouldn't be public
information. It's also involving open investigations as well."

In June, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a
$91,104 annual contract with Hayslett's firm, Hayslett Analytical
Services. The contract automatically renews in 2011 and again in 2012.

Board of supervisors records from 2007 say that Hayslett is based in
Shasta Lake. He didn't return a message left Friday.

During the same June meeting, the Shasta County supervisors also
approved a contract with Mike Baker, the owner of Baker Investigative
Services. His annual contract is $89,755 with two automatic renewals.
He couldn't be reached for comment. It was unclear Friday what town
his office is based in.

Cusick also had subpoenaed documents Baker had generated, but the
sheriff's office responded to that request saying it had no records
of Baker's work either.

Bosenko said Hayslett has been a consultant with the Cal-MMET program
since its inception, in 2002. Baker has been a consultant since 2007,
according to board of supervisors records.

"Both consultants are responsible to analyze, collect, categorize and
disseminate information and intelligence necessary for criminal
prosecution of methamphetamine manufacturers and traffickers,"
Bosenko wrote in his request for board approval for the contracts.

Baker also testifies in court as an expert, and he has expertise in
"preparing and obtaining court approvals/orders for search warrants,
wire taps, pen registers, vehicle tracking, pole cameras and other
types of covert surveillance requiring court orders," Bosenko wrote.

A pen register is an electronic device that records activities on
phones and computers.

In response to questions by Supervisor David Kehoe about why a
sheriff's office employee couldn't do the consultants' work, Bosenko
explained that law enforcement personnel do not have Hayslett's and
Baker's experience and training, according to supervisors minutes.

Cusick's request for records comes in advance of a Sept. 13 hearing
in Sacramento at which a federal judge could decide whether Cal-MMET
is pulling over suspects along Interstate 5 based on their race.

"Is this guy providing them with demographic information?" Cusick
said of Hayslett. "Is he saying you should be pulling over Hispanic drivers?"

Her client, Jose Salvador Sanchez-Palomino, is one of at least 12
suspects who have alleged in federal and Shasta County courts that
Cal-MMET is racially profiling Hispanics and other minorities along
Interstate 5 north of Redding.

Racial profiling falls under the category of "selective prosecution,"
which courts have ruled unconstitutional since the mid-1970s.

Sanchez-Palomino, 31, of Mexico, along with Fransisco Javier Velasco,
34, of Los Angeles were arrested on I-5 by Cal-MMET agents in
February 2009. The pair were charged with transporting 13 kilograms
of cocaine, which agents allegedly found inside a hidden compartment
in the trunk of their car. Velasco is out on bail. Sanchez-Palomino
is in federal custody in Nevada County, Cusick said.

This spring, the Shasta County public defender's office filed court
documents alleging that for years deputies working for Cal-MMET
specifically targeted Hispanic drivers suspected of hauling cash and
drugs along I-5.

It's a charge Bosenko and Cal-MMET agents adamantly deny.

Senior Deputy Public Defender Mike Horan this spring filed a racial
profiling motion on behalf of Saul Arais Guzman, a 25-year-old
Portland, Ore., man who was arrested in August 2009 on I-5 on
suspicion of running drugs.

Shasta County Superior Court Judge James Ruggiero in June denied
Horan's motion, saying in his ruling that reasonable proportions of
whites and Hispanic drivers were being stopped by Shasta County drug
agents on I-5.