Another Drug Raid Nightmare

Hearing on change of venue for Frederick is delayed

October 25, 2008

CHESAPEAKE

A court hearing scheduled Monday for Ryan Frederick, the Portlock man accused of killing a detective, has been continued. No new date has been set.

The hearing was expected to address several motions, including a request by the prosecution to move Frederick's trial out of Hampton Roads and a defense request to throw out evidence collected during a drug raid at Frederick's home.

The prosecution wants a so-called change of venue because of "adverse and inaccurate publicity."

"It is clear that the atmosphere will continue to be poisoned in this area of the state," prosecutors wrote in their motion to move the trial.

Frederick, 29, is accused of shooting Detective Jarrod Shivers on Jan. 17 while Shivers and more than a dozen other officers executed a drug search warrant, police said. Shivers was standing at the steps of Frederick's front door when he was shot, police said.

Frederick said he fired two shots at what he feared were intruders. The shots were fired as officers on the other side of the door used a battering ram on it.

Chesapeake police have said little about the circumstances surrounding the raid and will not make their internal investigation public. The case remains the subject of scrutiny in both the traditional media and on the Internet.

"The public feeding on this misinformation has created a frenetic environment wherein facts are distorted or ignored and replaced by rumor and erroneous conclusions of law and facts," prosecutor Paul Ebert has argued.

Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington could rule on the change of venue and other motions at the next hearing. Frederick's trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 20.

His attorney, James Broccoletti, is now asking the court to compel prosecutors to hand over to him documents in the case. Broccoletti is seeking diagrams and any sketches made of the crime scene, video taken during the re-enactment at the crime scene, the cell phone records of Renaldo Turnbull Jr., photos of the marijuana plants stolen from the garage during the burglary, and certificate of analysis reflecting that it was marijuana, according to court records.

Broccoletti said he "has repeatedly requested these items for more than a month," but has yet to receive them.

Turnbull told The Virginian-Pilot in September that he was one of two men who broke into Frederick's garage to look for evidence of a marijuana-growing operation. Turnbull said he and an accomplice broke into the garage to gather evidence for police.

The drug raid followed the break-in, which was never reported to authorities.

Frederick is charged with capital murder, use of a firearm, and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. He is being held without bond.

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Ryan Frederick to be tried in Chesapeake, judge rules

By John Hopkins
The Virginian-Pilot
November 13, 2008

CHESAPEAKE

Ryan Frederick, the Portlock man accused of killing a city police detective, will be tried in Chesapeake, the judge in the case ruled Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington will attempt to seat a jury of Chesapeake residents for the trial scheduled to start Jan. 20. If the lawyers in the case fail to seat a panel of local jurors, the judge will consider moving the case out of the area.

"I think that the court has a duty to try to seat a jury," the judge said.

Special prosecutor Paul Ebert wanted the case moved from Chesapeake because of what he called "adverse and inaccurate publicity."

Frederick faces charges of capital murder, use of a firearm and manufacturing marijuana. The 29-year-old is accused of shooting Detective Jarrod Shivers on the night of Jan. 17.

Shivers, 34, was fatally shot as he and more than a dozen other officers tried to enter Frederick's home to execute a drug search warrant, according to police. Frederick has maintained that he was in bed when police arrived and that he fired his gun twice at what he thought were intruders breaking through his front door.

In obtaining the search warrant, police relied on a confidential informant who claimed to have been in Frederick's home and observed marijuana plants growing in a detached garage. Prosecutors said Wednesday that they have disclosed the identity of that informant to Frederick's defense attorney. They were, however, granted a request to have records of the informant's identity sealed from the public.

Defense attorney James Broccoletti had also asked that the search warrant in the case be thrown out because the confidential informant used by police had burglarized Frederick's property to get evidence of a marijuana-growing operation. Prosecutors have acknowledged the break-in, saying "more than one person, including the confidential informant in this case, had broken into the detached garage."

They argued, however, that there "is no evidence whatsoever" that the officer who obtained the search warrant, Detective Kiley Roberts, knew about the break-in.

"There is no information before the court, your honor - none - that the officer knew that," argued Richard Conway, one of the special prosecutors brought in from Prince William County.

Broccoletti was seeking a hearing in which witnesses, including Roberts, could be put on the stand and questioned about what they knew.

"What's the harm of putting the officer on, if that's all he's going to say?" Broccoletti argued.

Arrington denied the motion to suppress the search warrant. Prosecutors said that it wasn't until May that they had information about the scenario involving the informant and a break-in by multiple people prior to the drug raid.

In February, Renaldo Turnbull Jr. of Chesapeake told The Virginian-Pilot that he and an accomplice named "Steven" broke into Frederick's garage in January to look for evidence of a marijuana-growing operation for police. Steven, a Chesapeake resident, knew Frederick and had worked with police before, Turnbull said.

Turnbull said he took about five or six marijuana plants during the break-in. It was Steven who actually handed the plants over to police, according to Turnbull, who said he had also been working with police since his release last year from prison. Both Turnbull and Steven are in custody awaiting prosecution on unrelated offenses.

The next pretrial hearing in the case is Dec. 5. Frederick remains in the Chesapeake Correctional Center without bail.

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Change of Venue Denied in Frederick Case

At least for now, the Ryan Frederick Case will remain in Chesapeake.

I attended the rescheduled hearing today in Judge Marjorie Arrington’s court. The judge ruled that the trial would remain in Chesapeake unless it proves impossible to seat a jury when the trial begins in January.

Special Prosecutor Paul Ebert appeared to know that was coming and rambled on in his argument that bloggers appearing as sources on television had poisoned the atmosphere in Chesapeake. More on the real effect of blogging on this case in a later, separate post.

There were other motions to be decided, including discovery issues, the identity of the informant, and a challenge to the initial search warrant.

There were two unresolved areas of discovery, the process in which the prosecution is required to reveal evidence which may support the defense’s case, one being the identity of the confidential informant. This issue was resolved between the prosecutor and defense attorney James Broccoletti. The identity of the informant was revealed to the court and the defense in a sealed document, but was not made public nor was it made available to the press. Of course, we think we know who he/they are, but this allows the prosecution and police to still not admit it. However, the defense can now take a sworn statement from the informant which may be of some use to them in other motions.

One area of discovery still in dispute relates to a later search of Frederick’s home on March 20, 2008. In that “search” the police made measurements, took pictures, and and videotaped a re-enactment of the raid and shooting. The prosecution has maintained that these results are not subject to discovery. The defense maintains that because they are results of a search warrant and because the prosecution maintains that Frederick knew police, rather than burglars, were outside his home, they are.

The police have given conflicting statements as to how many police were there and where they were, so knowing exactly where everyone was standing and what Frederick could, and could not, have seen from where he was is vitally important in determining the truth of what happened.

Judge Arrington requested memos form both sides and will rule on Dec. 5th.

Broccoletti had asked that the results of the initial search warrant be suppressed, on grounds that the warranthad been obtained by misleading the issuing magistrate by not telling the informant had been on Frederick’s property committing a felony(burglary). This is one of those areas where law and common sense part company.

Apparently the guiding law on that issue is a Supreme Court decision in “Frank vs. Delaware” which allowed for a hearing with sworn testimony if the defense can prove the officer obtaining a warrant defrauded the issuing judge. However, the burden of proof in this case is on the defense, which must prove without the benefit of questioning the officer who obtained the warrant that he knowingly lied to obtain the warrant. That is very difficult to accomplish when you can’t even get sworn testimony from the officer and the identity of the informant has been withheld.

It is not enough that the warrant was issued based on a burglary, it would have to be proved that the officer who got the warrant knew that was the case. It is OK if the informant lies to the police, the warrant would still be valid.

So, without questioning Det. Kyle Roberts, who obtained the warrant, or the up to this point, unconfirmed informant, Broccoletti would have had to be able to prove strictly from statements made in court by the prosecutor that Roberts knew the informant had burglarized Frederick’s garage at the time he obtained the warrant. Though that may eventually prove to be the case, Prosecutor Conway had not quite said that at the last hearing. Arrington ruled that Broccoletti had not accomplished that as yet, but left open throwing out the warrant later on, in the course of the trial, if proof that Roberts misled the magistrate surfaces. Of course, by that time, the jury will have seen the results of the warrant and would just be told to disregard what they knew.

One odd note: When Judge Arrington paraphrased what Conway had said in her decision, Conway interrupted her to correct her on his exact wording. That raises suspicions that he had chosen hos words very carefully to mislead without actually lying in court. I will be watching that Clintonesque parsing of words very carefully as this unfolds.

One personal observation I would offer is that Frederick, who stands to spend his youth in prison if convicted, and his attorney, seemed relaxed and confident, while the prosecutors seemed weary and worried as though they were the ones with a great weight on their shoulders.

I like to think I have played a small part in that.

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Ryan Frederick Update

Radley Balko | December 16, 2008, 12:17pm

Lots of interesting new information came out at a pre-trial hearing yesterday in Chesapeake, Virginia for Ryan Frederick, the man charged with capital murder for killing Det. Jarrod Shivers during a botched drug raid on Frederick's home last January.

To briefly catch you up: Police were acting on an informant's tip that Frederick was growing marijuana in his garage. They found no plants, and only a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, which Frederick concedes was for personal use. Both I and the Virginian-Pilot newspaper have since reported that the informant in the case, "Steven," and another man who also says he was a police informant, Renaldo Turnbull, illegally broke into Frederick's home three nights before the raid to look for probably cause, likely with the consent or at least the knowledge of the police.

Here's what we learned yesterday:

• The State is now conceding that the police informant in the case illegally broke into Frederick's home three nights before the raid. Until now, they had either denied the connection or refused to comment.

• Frederick's attorney released an audio recording taken in a police car shortly after the raid. In it, Frederick tries to explain that he was confused and frightened because someone had broken into his home earlier in the week. A police detective replies, "We know that." In a second recording, the detective says again, "First off, we know your house had been broken into. OK?"

• Yet according to the Virginian-Pilot, the State still insists that, "there is nothing whatsoever to suggest police knew at the time who broke in or who was involved. They said police learned months later that the parties involved included one of their informants." (Emphasis mine.)

This doesn't make any sense. The affidavit the police filed to obtain the warrant notes that the police informant was in Frederick's home three nights before the raid. That's exactly when the burglary happened. The State is trying to argue that even though (a) the police knew their informant was in Frederick's house three nights before the raid, and (b) the police knew someone had broken into Frederick's home three nights before the raid, they apparently believed at the time that these two incidents were entirely coincidental, which is why they didn't include on the search warrant affidavit the fact that their informant illegally broke into Frederick's home to obtain probable cause.

There are two options here. The Chesapeake police are either corrupt, or they're naive to the point of incompetent. The State apparently believes its case is better served by arguing the latter.

But there's one other niggling detail that throws the State's argument into a tailspin: Ryan Frederick never reported the break-in. How, then, could the detective who questioned Frederick the night of the raid have known about it?

• Despite all of this, Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington still denied a defense motion to suppress the warrant. Which if nothing else I guess gives Frederick an early issue to put in his appeal should he be convicted.

• There's now more than enough evidence to suggest that Chesapeake police had knowledge that the probable cause for the search warrant to Frederick's home was obtained illegally. Moreover, Turnbull's interviews with me and with the Virginian-Pilot also raise the possibility that this wasn't the first time a Chesapeake police informant burglarized a private residence to search for probable cause. According to Turnbull, this was common practice. And the police encouraged it.

It's past time for an outside investigation, preferably from the Justice Department.

• Special Prosecutor Paul Ebert subpoenaed Virginian-Pilot reporter John Hopkins, the other journalist to speak to Turnbull. Ebert never called Hopkins to the stand. But the possibility that he could have caused Judge Arrington to bar Hopkins from the courtroom. Hopkins—who has covered this case as well as I've seen any journalist cover one of these raids—now won't be able to attend next month's trial, either.

• The plants the informant Steven claimed to have found in Frederick's home were never turned over to the police, and thus were never tested to confirm that they were actually marijuana. For all we know, they could still have been Japanese Maple saplings. Turnbull says Steven turned the plants over to the police. The State is either arguing that the police didn't know Turnbull and Steven removed the plants, or that they were aware, but never got around to asking Steven to turn them over. Again, the choice here is corruption or incompetence.

That also means that this entire raid was conducted solely on the word of the informant Steven, a shady character who at the time was facing his own criminal charges for credit card fraud. There were no controlled buys, and no significant surveillance. The only corroborating investigation the police did were a few drive-bys of Frederick's home. According to the affidavit, that should have lessened their suspicion, because they noted no unusual activity.

Prior posts on the Frederick case here.

MORE: Chesapeake-area blogger Rick Caldwell writes:

Ryan Frederick is being harassed by the city of Chesapeake, through code enforcement. His sister has recently moved back to the area, having lived overseas for several years. Since her arrival, she has received numerous notices from the city's code enforcement division, regarding siding in disrepair, the condition of the pool in the back yard, and demanding the removal of two signs expressing support for Ryan from the front yard. The city has been sending these notices to Ryan at the jail as well, and is even threatening to sue over the pool.

Nice touch.

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CHESAPEAKE

Ryan Frederick's attorney argued Monday that an audio recording suggests police knew about an unreported break-in at his client's home just before the ill-fated drug raid in which a detective was killed.

The burglary occurred days before police raided Frederick's home in Portlock on Jan. 17. They had a search warrant, based on an informant's tips about a marijuana-growing operation. Frederick is accused of killing Detective Jarrod Shivers that night as he and other officers tried to enter.

James Broccoletti, Frederick's attorney, renewed a motion Monday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to have the search warrant thrown out. Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington declined to reconsider the motion.

Broccoletti has argued the warrant - and all the evidence found under its auspices - should be suppressed because the police informant had burglarized Frederick's property to get drug evidence and the magistrate who granted the warrant was never told about the police informant's role in the break-in. Prosecutors have already acknowledged that "more than one person, including the confidential informant in this case" had broken into Frederick's detached garage.

Frederick, 29, has maintained that he fired twice at what he thought were intruders breaking through his front door.

The night Frederick was arrested, he was placed in a police car and a recorder was turned on, Broccoletti said. The recording is of Frederick trying to tell police about an earlier break-in at his home.

A detective on the recording replied: "We know that," Broccoletti said.

At another time, the detective states: "First off, we know your house had been broken into. OK?"

"Two separate occasions he tells the defendant that he knew the home had been burglarized," Broccoletti argued.

The special prosecutors in the case said there is nothing whatsoever to suggest police knew at the time who broke in or who was involved. They said police learned months later that the parties involved included one of their informants.

Frederick is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 20 on charges of capital murder, use of a firearm and manufacturing marijuana. He is being held in the Chesapeake Correctional Center.

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Ryan Frederick's sister: City has been 'harassing us'

© December 24, 2008

CHESAPEAKE

The two giant signs had been in front of Ryan Frederick's home for months, gathering signatures in support of a man who had been arrested and accused this year of killing a Chesapeake police detective.

That was until September, when the city of Chesapeake ordered the signs to be removed if no one obtained a permit for them.

Since he was jailed in January on charges of fatally shooting Detective Jarrod Shivers, Frederick has also been cited by the city for overgrown grass and weeds, broken windows on a backyard garage, and a pool with water that was described in one report as "green and stagnant."

City inspectors have made at least eight visits to the home since June, records show.

Frederick's sister, Amanda Arakelyan, said Wednesday she thinks the city has "just been harassing us because of Ryan's situation." Being ordered to remove the signs made her angry, but the signs were taken down, she said.

"They just don't want anybody to have support for Ryan," Arakelyan said from Frederick's Redstart Avenue home, where Shivers was shot Jan. 17 during a police drug raid there. Frederick's sister has lived at the home since November.

City spokesman Mark Cox said the Frederick home is being treated no differently than any other home in Chesapeake. City code allows temporary signs in very limited situations, such as political or real estate signs. Permits are required in some cases.

Jerry Johnson, a former South Norfolk Civic League president who lives near the Frederick home, said the signs were "an obvious code violation."

The signs were too large, and at least one of them was just propped up against a tree, he said.

"If we had a good storm, they may have gone sailing down the street," he said.

Aside from the code violation, the signs had become distracting for the community, Johnson said. Television news crews stopped by frequently with their trucks. The signs were a "constant reminder that that's where the police officer was killed," he said.

Arakelyan said Frederick received notices of the code violations in jail, where "there's nothing he can do."

Friends and family have corrected the violations, city reports show.

Arakelyan said she wants to have the signs - which are stashed in Frederick's garage - back in the front yard in time for her brother's capital murder trial, which is set to begin Jan. 20.

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Turducken said:

The judges who are issuing these warrants need to be made into examples, they are the weakest link.

It's obvious any civil method of changing things is not working.

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guest2222999 said:

Fucking Gestapo
When are you people going to start getting angry with the tactics the police are imposing against there own citizens.First you gotta get that asshole Bush and his ilk out of office.then start raising shit with your congressmen and senators.
You Americans in the past lorded over everyone one about you're rights and freedom,well you dropped the ball on that one.
You're soon to be in the middle on a election race.I think you have an opportunity coming up to make your opinions known.And don't let some smarmy politian wrap himself up in the flag and sell that crap again. War on drugs my ass,More like war on its own people.

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whiterabbit9 said:

look at that guy

mr. revolution
mr. know it all

you americans, like we are united or some shit

this is the land of the prison

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gr0wm4g3 said:

this is so goddamned sad. This kind of stuff seems to happen all the time now and not one LEO is ever held truly accountable. I wish we had a way to change this kind of stuff to keep it from happening. I agree drug warrants are wayyyyy too easy for LEO to get...it seems all they have to do nowadays is 'claim' that they "saw something" or "smelled something" or "someone told them" it's all heresay BS.

sad day...

:/

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SomeGuy said:

The only way to end it is to end the so called "war on drugs."

Its given LEO carte blanche to act like a bunch of jack booted, nazi acting thugs, kicking in whoevers door they want and the ability to violate peoples rights at will.

All they have to do is say we are trying to protect the CHEEELDRIN and everyone looks the other way. They don't seem to notice that LEO has turned it into a money making, billion dollar industry for themselves and innocent people get caught up in it all the time.

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SomeGuy said:

The only way to end it is to end the so called "war on drugs."

Its given LEO carte blanche to act like a bunch of jack booted, nazi acting thugs, kicking in whoevers door they want and the ability to violate peoples rights at will.

All they have to do is say we are trying to protect the CHEEELDRIN and everyone looks the other way. They don't seem to notice that LEO has turned it into a money making, billion dollar industry for themselves and innocent people get caught up in it all the time.

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