DRUG AGENT INCURS JUDGE'S WRATH

A Narcotics Agent's Mistakes In A Miami Beach Drug Case Could Affect
Federal Prosecutions In Which He Plays A Key Role As A Witness

Three years ago, a rookie agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration
busted South Florida's largest supplier of ketamine, the "Special K" club
drug, at a Miami Beach waterfront home.

His work produced convictions of the ringleader, the ringleader's
right-hand man and eight other co-defendants. Quite a haul for a young
agent - - but not for Kevin Bliss.

Instead of earning praise in the nationwide crackdown on traffickers of the
powerful anesthetic, Bliss received a rare public lashing from a Miami
federal judge and got grilled by his bosses at the DEA.

The reasons: Bliss failed to disclose crime-scene photos for two years,
erased a few of those photos before trial and misled jurors with his testimony.

The DEA cleared Bliss, 31, of any wrongdoing, but his mistakes in the Miami
Beach case could affect other prosecutions. They might also haunt his
career, because he must reveal his past misconduct before testifying in all
future drug cases.

The U.S. attorney's office said it won't comment about Bliss, but
prosecutors insisted they still view him as a credible witness.

The DEA's internal probe was triggered by U.S. District Judge Adalberto
Jordan, who issued a blistering critique of Bliss' conduct earlier this year.

"His comportment and testimony during cross-examination were inexplicable
and, in my view, an embarrassment to the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's
Office," Jordan wrote in January.

"If I had a legal basis to do it, I would order Agent Bliss to show cause
why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for
[his] misleading and/or false testimony."

Last month, the judge tempered his language by removing the word "false"
from his order, after the agent's lawyer, Thomas Roth, argued that Jordan
misinterpreted the context of Bliss' statements under oath. But he rejected
the attorney's request to have the order thrown out.

'Poor Judgment'

Roth, who is based in New Jersey, had argued that Bliss' "mistakes reflect
negligence and poor judgment rather than deception or intentional misconduct."

Bliss, who declined to comment for this story, worked as a New York City
cop for three and a half years before joining the DEA's 400-agent Miami
field office in 2000. He quickly went undercover in targeting Thomas
Lehmann, an alleged South Florida trafficker of ketamine, steroids and
other drugs with suppliers in Mexico. Lehmann owned Super Nutrition stores
in Miami and New Jersey.

On the morning of Sept. 18, 2002, Bliss, other federal agents and Miami-
Dade detectives raided the waterfront property at 5907 Pine Tree Dr., which
was leased by Lehmann. He was arrested in his bedroom.

Paul Brandreth, a close associate who lived with his girlfriend in Bay
Harbor Islands, was bringing Lehman money from one of their drug sales when
he was arrested at the Pine Tree Drive house.

While searching Lehmann's house, DEA agents seized about 200 ketamine
vials, eight stolen luxury vehicles worth about $450,000 and seven
firearms, including two AK-47 semi-automatic weapons. Assisted by the
Secret Service, agents also found about 20 phony credit cards and 40 fake
ID cards to match them.

Bliss said he gathered evidence from Lehmann's bedroom -- including four
guns -- and took about 20 photographs with a digital camera. He said he
also took one wide shot of a bedroom that Brandreth used during his visits
to the house.

DEA agent Anthony Angeli also combed through Brandreth's room, where he
said he found three guns. But he took no pictures.

Federal prosecutors charged Lehman and Brandreth with a ketamine smuggling
and distribution conspiracy and with using the guns for the drug
trafficking. Eight other associates also were charged.

All of them quickly pleaded guilty. But Brandreth, the son of a retired New
York City cop, eventually withdrew his deal on the gun charge with approval
from the judge and went to trial.

Just days before the trial almost two years later, Bliss disclosed he had
withheld some 20 "missing photographs" of the crime scene from Brandreth's
lawyer. Normally, prosecutors must turn over this type of evidence soon
after an indictment is returned.

Bliss said he stumbled across a computer disk containing the missing
photographs at the DEA's Miami office in late August 2004, after Assistant
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg had asked him to type up some information
for Brandreth's trial.

Bliss' conduct grew more suspicious when Brandreth's lawyer uncovered that
he had deleted three photos from the disk.

Judge Jordan was not pleased.

"Given that Agent Kevin Bliss -- the case agent -- took the photographs
himself, it is difficult to understand how in the world they were not
disclosed or produced earlier than yesterday," Jordan wrote in court papers.

The judge then ordered the trial delayed until October 2004, when Bliss'
conduct came under even harsher scrutiny.

Brandreth's attorney, Maria Elena Perez, tried to show that all seven guns
seized in the Pine Tree Drive house belonged to Lehmann and were originally
found in his bedroom -- contrary to the claims of DEA agents.

She also tried to suggest that because none of the crime-scene photos taken
by Bliss showed any guns in Brandreth's bedroom, her client did not possess
or use them for drug trafficking. She also tried to imply that Bliss may
have intentionally deleted a photograph that showed Brandreth's room with
no guns in it.

On cross-examination, Perez asked Bliss if he was aware of any photo taken
of guns in Brandreth's room similar to a picture shot of firearms laid out
on Lehmann's bed.

"I don't think there is," Bliss said.

"Are you positive?" Perez asked again.

"Pretty sure. I wasn't in the room, but I didn't take one," Bliss said.

His words would backfire on him.

After Bliss' testimony, Greenberg, the prosecutor, talked with Secret
Service Adam Layton, who also participated in the drug raid. Layton told
Greenberg that he had taken a couple of photographs of guns at the Pine
Tree Drive home and had informed Bliss about them just before the DEA
agent's testimony.

Layton then testified outside the jury's presence that one of the photos
was of handguns on a dresser in Brandreth's bedroom in the house. Layton
had moved the firearms to the dresser from where they were found in the
room so he could take the picture as a "trophy" or souvenir. Brandreth's
attorney sought the photo, but Layton said he couldn't find it.

Judge's Rebuke

"Despite learning about the photographs from Agent Layton, Agent Bliss did
not tell the assistant U.S. attorneys about them and answered questions on
cross-examination in a way that was misleading, if not false," Judge Jordan
wrote in his Jan. 5, 2005, order regarding Bliss.

Despite Bliss' conduct, a Miami federal jury convicted Brandreth, 37, of
possessing the three guns and using them for drug trafficking. The judge,
just days after revising his order last month, sentenced Brandreth to about
20 years in prison.

Brandreth, Lehmann and two others also face first-degree murder charges in
state court: They're accused of abducting ketamine dealer Stephen Citranglo
from his Miami Beach apartment in early January 2002. They allegedly stole
$80,000 from Citranglo before killing him. His body was dumped in the
Everglades.

Bliss is a witness for the prosecution in that case, too.