DECISION TO RELEASE JAILHOUSE SNITCH BACKFIRES

Brenda DelBene was stocking blueberry Pop-Tarts when a masked man stuck an
AK-47 assault rifle in her face.

"Look away, look down and get on the ground," said the gunman, who fled
with about $500 and two cartons of Newports.

The Sept. 9 holdup of the BP convenience store in Penn Hills hardly seems
remarkable. No one was hurt, and the take was modest.

But Robert E. Harper -- the man charged with the robbery -- was no ordinary
criminal.

Harper should have been in jail to await sentencing for other armed
robberies. But he was on the streets because he bought his freedom with
information in a grand jury probe of drug dealing at the Allegheny County Jail.

Twice he was granted house arrest with electronic monitoring at the request
of jail officials and District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr.'s office.
Common Pleas Judge David Cashman approved the requests.

Harper was supposed to quietly wait at home for sentencing for six armed
robberies that began in December 2000 -- just six months after he was
released from prison for a 1990 robbery and assault.

Instead, while on house arrest Harper committed 16 armed robberies and shot
two people, police said.

Typically, criminals like Harper would not be eligible for house arrest
because of their violent pasts, said Joel Reisz, who coordinates the
electronic monitoring program for the county bail agency.

"For a judge to let him go, that's a big loophole," said DelBene, who left
her job at the Penn Hills BP two days after the robbery. "The legal system
needs to wake up. It sounds like he thinks this is a game. But it could
have cost someone's life."

This is a cautionary tale for police, prosecutors and judges, who must
weigh the risks and rewards of making deals with violent criminals. It is
also a story about mistakes and missed opportunities.

'A failure'

Harper's crime spree could have ended two months before his final arrest
Nov. 24. But an oversight allowed him to walk free. Harper, wearing an
ankle bracelet, had been hauled in by police Sept. 25 on a robbery charge
from Clairton. He left the county jail that night on $10,000 bond because a
county bail investigator sitting in on his arraignment didn't report
Harper's arrest.

"That was a failure on our part. The monitoring office should have been
notified," said John Young, manager of the county Bail Agency. "Our
procedures need to be streamlined, and I plan to re-educate and
re-emphasize with our staff the policies."

Harper, 31, of Braddock, has been charged with the 16 robberies, including
one in which a bartender at a Primanti Bros. restaurant was shot in the
hand, police say. Terrified victims in the other holdups were ordered at
gunpoint to hand over cash. Police worried at the time that the robberies
were becoming progressively more bold and violent.

"I think if I had sneezed by accident, I would never have seen my two
grandkids again," said DelBene, 39, of Penn Hills.

Cashman, the judge who twice approved Harper's release on house arrest, is
one of many who say that making deals with informants like Harper is a
necessary evil.

"Do I feel bad about the new victims? I certainly do. It's unfortunate,"
Cashman said. "But I would do it again."

The Nov. 24 arrest that finally put Harper away began with a minor traffic
violation and ended with charges of drug possession, fleeing and eluding,
resisting arrest and reckless driving. He then began to confess to the
robberies, police said.

Still dealing

Harper now sits in the county jail, bouncing in and out of solitary
confinement. He will face up to 300 years in prison June 13 when he appears
before Cashman for sentencing on the six armed robberies that began in
December 2000.

Harper continues to seek favors in exchange for information about drug
dealing at the jail, court records show.

While prosecutors so far have little to show in terms of drug arrests, a
county grand jury uncovered a sex-for-favors scandal that resulted in the
arrests of 14 jail guards.

In January, guards found marijuana and tobacco hidden in a rolled-up sock
in Harper's cell. Harper, then segregated from other inmates, told an
internal affairs investigator he would identify his supplier, according to
a criminal complaint. Harper has not been charged for having the contraband
in his cell.

Harper was placed in the general population and watched, according to court
records. Another inmate saw Harper get drugs from Katie Thelma Farmer, 58,
of Coraopolis, a friend of Harper's wife and a nurse at the jail, the
records state.

Authorities confronted Harper, and he asked for a favor from an
investigator, according to the criminal complaint against Farmer. "If I
tell you who she is, if I lay out the whole thing, will you get me out of
the hole?"

Farmer, who faces a preliminary hearing on Monday, denies the drug charges.

"They're not true," she said flatly in a recent telephone interview.

Warden Ramon C. Rustin said Farmer's arrest shows that "some of Harper's
information is good." Rustin took over supervision of the jail in October,
10 months after Cashman freed Harper for the first time.

But Rustin said he "would never recommend he be released on home detention"
based on what he knows now.

The jail's internal affairs investigators, working with the District
Attorney's Office, pushed for Harper's release from the Uptown lockup,
Rustin said.

Rustin declined to make Harper available for an interview. Harper's
attorney, Patrick Thomassey, declined comment.

Under the radar

On Dec. 12, 2003, Cashman granted house arrest for Harper on the condition
he wear an ankle bracelet and remain in his Braddock home. Cashman said the
request for house arrest came from someone at the jail, although he does
not remember who.

Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., said
his office knew of the release request and did not object. He declined
further comment.

Bracelets like the one Harper wore send signals to a box connected to the
person's home phone line. If the bracelet is moved out of range of the box,
or it is removed, a call automatically goes to the county office, Reisz said.

A computer at the office then checks the detainee's records to determine
where he should be.

From December 2003 to February 2004, Harper was allowed out of his house
- -- while still wearing the bracelet -- only for pre-approved medical
visits. He's a diabetic, according to court records.

The county does not use satellite technology to monitor a defendant's
movements. Probation officers try to verify the location by calling bosses
and doctors.

Cashman revoked Harper's house arrest in February 2004 and ordered him to
jail because officers could not verify that Harper went to see his doctor
as scheduled, Reisz said.

Harper stayed in jail for two months, then Cashman released him May 4 --
again on house arrest with electronic monitoring. This time, Cashman
granted Harper work release -- again at the request of jail investigators
and the District Attorney's Office.

It wasn't long before the robbery spree began, police say.

Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 25, police say, Harper hit a dozen stores, gas
stations and restaurants in the North Side, Shadyside, Lawrenceville,
Hazelwood, Greenfield, Carrick, Penn Hills, North Versailles, Ross and
Clairton.

Chief county probation Officer Robert Galardy, whose department shares
responsibility with the Bail Agency for monitoring defendants on house
arrest, said normal steps were taken to verify Harper was at work. These
steps include checking pay stubs, calling employers and doing some
surveillance, Galardy said.

"These obviously didn't work on Mr. Harper," he said. "It's not jail. We
have to rely on the selection of people with reasonable risks. But a person
who is determined to beat the system might succeed."

Of the roughly 700 people on monitored house arrest, 76 are awaiting trial,
officials said. About 2 percent of all detainees in the program are
arrested for violating the terms of home confinement, said Galardy, who
called that statistic proof that "reasonable precautions" usually work.

"We have very few big problems like Mr. Harper," he said.

'Betrayed'

The first clue Harper was violating the terms of his house arrest came
Sept. 23, when the electronic monitoring office received a signal
indicating he had blown his 11:30 p.m. curfew.

That same day, Stephen Wells of Wilkinsburg was shot as he stood on his
porch. Wells was shot in the leg, hand and arm in what police characterized
as a dispute involving a woman. In November, Wells identified Harper's
photo as that of the man who shot him, police said.

On Sept. 24 -- a Friday -- court monitors called Cashman to alert the judge
of the curfew violation. But Cashman and his staff were out of the office,
Cashman said.

On Saturday, Sept. 25, Pleasant Hills police chased a car after responding
to a gas station robbery in neighboring Clairton. They arrested Harper, his
wife Sheila Harper, 34, and friend Shawn Wygant, 32. Harper was charged
with conspiracy, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, reckless
endangerment, threats, trespass and a weapons offense.

Next he was hauled in to Night Court, wearing the ankle bracelet, and
released on $10,000 bond.

Cashman, who said he didn't learn about it until he returned to work that
Monday, called Harper's release "perplexing."

Harper remained a fugitive for nearly two months, at one point robbing
three stores in two days, police say.

Finally, on Nov. 24, narcotics detectives saw Harper blow through a red
light in Homewood. He was arrested after a chase and a struggle.

On Dec. 17, he confessed to 15 robberies, according to criminal complaints.

Pittsburgh police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr., whose department charged
Harper with nine robberies, said police sometimes have to take chances with
informants.

"That's who we get information from in drug cases, people who are involved
with it," McNeilly said. "It's disappointing that he betrayed the trust
investigators placed in him."