JPD changes policy on use of informants

The Jacksonville Police Department has mandated greater oversight in the use of informants on the heels of a Daily News report detailing detectives building drug cases using a fugitive informant wanted by another agency on felony charges of assaulting an infant.

Meanwhile, two controversial court cases against defendants who maintain they never sold drugs to the fugitive informant have been dismissed by the District Attorney’s Office.

While the amended policy was disseminated within a few days of the Aug. 4 Daily News report, JPD Chief Mike Yaniero said the policy change came about because of a review for national accreditation.

“In the past several months, in part due to (an accreditation) standard that requires all policies be evaluated, the entire police operational manual was reviewed,” he said, adding that 48 policies and procedures had been revised.

Last summer, while Onslow County sheriff’s deputies were circulating fliers and searching for the fugitive, JPD detectives were using him as an informant in a sweeping federal and local drug sting. His work for them was part of Operation Vu Ja De, a joint JPD and Naval Criminal Investigative Service undercover campaign from late 2008 to early 2009. The sweep resulted in 45 suspects being charged with 394 felonies.

Most of those suspects pleaded guilty to drug-related charges and received prison sentences or, in most cases, probation, according to court records.

Two of the suspects in the drug bust told The Daily News they never sold drugs to the informant. Charges against both of them have been dropped.

Dominique Fortune, 30, was charged with three felonies as part of Operation Vu Ja De, which is slang for the opposite of déjà vu and means an unfamiliar event.

Arresting officers said Fortune sold the informant 21 grams of marijuana.

The informant testified against Fortune in open court during a March trial. Prosecutors tried to prevent the jury from hearing testimony that the informant was a fugitive while working for the JPD. The presiding judge allowed limited testimony about the informant’s history including the child abuse charges. The trial ended with a hung jury.

“I didn’t sell that dude a damn thing,” Fortune told The Daily News last week.

Fortune, who has a criminal history including marijuana possession, admitted he has done things that have got him into trouble.

“But I couldn’t say I sold drugs to this cat when I know I didn’t,” he said, adding that the state tried to get him to plead guilty to lesser charges on several occasions.

Assistant District Attorney Bob Roupe inherited the case in May. He told The Daily News last week that there were too many problems to proceed. The informant’s situation was an obstacle — but there was also no video, audio recording or direct line of sight by police of the alleged deal between Fortune and the informant.

Roupe dismissed charges last week against Fortune, who has enough criminal convictions to rate as a habitual offender if he is convicted of a felony in the next 10 years.

Emmanuel Stephens, 33, was charged in April 2009 with four felonies, including selling and delivering counterfeit drugs. The charges were dropped Friday afternoon.

“There were several minor issues that the defense would have exploited,” Assistant District Attorney Matt Silva told The Daily News. “I couldn’t have won this case.”

Stephens acknowledged his past criminal history including selling drugs but said he never had any dealings with the informant.

“Same detectives, same tactics, same informant,” Stephens said late Friday. “They ran the same game on more than just us.”

The existing JPD policy made it clear that fugitives were not to be used as informants. A recent update requires supervisors to ensure their detectives are not violating that rule.

The informant policy now calls for the sergeant and lieutenant of the Special Operations Division to audit informant files on a quarterly basis. The update also requires the sergeant to run informant names through the National Crime Information Center and NCAWARE, software database programs that compile information on fugitives, missing persons and stolen property.

“On an annual basis, the Sergeant of the Special Operations Division will ensure that a full NCIC criminal history is conducted on all current and active informants,” the amended policy states. “The NCIC check will be placed into the informant file and notated in the informant summary notes.”

Police officials would not answer questions as to when the department learned of the informant’s fugitive status and would not answer whether an internal review of the situation was conducted.

JPD Deputy Chief Tim Malfitano, who is in charge of both special operations and internal affairs, said policy violations brought to the department’s attention would be investigated. He has not said whether this situation has been reviewed or revealed the results of such a review if conducted.

Beginning in November 2008, the informant was listed as a fugitive in a computerized index available to all law enforcement agencies; deputies distributed wanted posters of him in the area; and a wanted poster of the informant was hand-delivered to Jacksonville police, according to deputies.

Ten months after warrants were issued for the informant’s arrest, officer Kevin Doyle brought the man to the Magistrate’s Office in July 2009 so the warrants could be served. The informant was given an unsecured bond at the request of law enforcement and did not go to jail, according to the Magistrate’s Office.

Sheriff’s Sgt. John Getty told Sheriff Ed Brown he was upset he did not get to speak with the informant about his pending child abuse case before he was released on bond.

The informant is accused of breaking a 5-month-old child’s left arm and shaking her so forcefully that the motion cracked the girl’s rib cage and caused retinal bleeding, according to arrest warrants. He has a pending court date.