March 1, 2008 -- Marin Independent Journal (CA) Drug Informant's Allegations Trigger Legal Nightmare At Marin Hall Of Justice By Gary Klien

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A drug informant's allegations that a Marin narcotics agent offered her leniency in exchange for three-way sex -- and then sent a photo of his penis to her cell phone -- have left a legal mess at the Hall of Justice that could take months to clean up.

The claims against former sheriff's Deputy Tyrone Williams have so far led to the dismissal of two criminal cases, defense challenges against three others, and at least one subpoena for Williams to testify.

"It appears that an out-of-control officer assembled a coterie of out-of-control informers and in that way polluted the criminal process," attorney Douglas Horngrad, representing a Novato man charged in a Williams investigation, wrote in a legal motion.

Williams resigned from the Sheriff's Office in mid-February.

"He wasn't asked to resign," said Sheriff Robert Doyle. "The attention that's been attracted to him has been grossly unfair, and I think he has resigned because of it. He resigned on his own."

The controversy stems from an arrest last April, when Williams was assigned to the county narcotics squad, formally known as the Marin County Major Crimes Task Force. The suspect was Sarah Gean Rawlins, a 19-year-old woman who lived in Ignacio.

The task force arrested Rawlins on allegations she sold about an ounce of marijuana to an undercover task force detective over three occasions in March and April 2007, police said. Rawlins also conspired with another suspect to sell the agent crystal methamphetamine, according to task force reports.

Rawlins, who pleaded not guilty, agreed to become a task force informant when police said her cooperation might help her get charges dismissed, according to her lawyer, Gary Kauffman. Williams was assigned to supervise Rawlins.

Internal Memo

Within weeks, Rawlins came to the district attorney's office and asked to speak with officials about Williams. She was met by Inspector Michael McBride, an investigator at the district attorney's office.

According to an internal memorandum filed by McBride, Rawlins said Williams showed up at her apartment with a bottle of wine and coaxed her into sharing it.

"While they were drinking Williams asked Rawlins if she had any pretty girlfriends," McBride wrote. "She told him she had a couple and Williams then asked her if she would be interested in a threesome. She could work off additional charges if she participated in the threesome."

Rawlins said she was eventually able to get Williams out of her apartment. But the next day she received a photograph of a penis on her cell phone with a text message that said it was another photo for her phone gallery.

Rawlins claimed it was Williams' penis, sent as an enticement to have sex.

"Rawlins stated that she was rearrested and booked into the Marin county Jail on April 20th for the same charges as her earlier arrest. The reason given was that the Task Force felt that she had not been working for them. Rawlins told me she did not have sex with Williams the night of his visit."

McBride then took Rawlins down the hall to meet with sheriff's officials, who opened an internal investigation into her allegations. Rawlins turned over a wine bottle and her cell phone as evidence.

The inquiry confirmed that someone sent Rawlins a picture of a penis, but it was apparently unclear to investigators whether Williams was the source. But authorities did conclude that Williams had violated department policy by contacting an informant without being monitored -- - either through direct observation or wireless surveillance -- by another detective, authorities said.

The aim of the policy is to prevent informants from making unchallenged police misconduct claims that could be used to impeach a detective's credibility in court.

On Dec. 21, the district attorney's office dropped its drug case against Rawlins.

"We did not feel we would be able to sustain our burden of proof," District Attorney Ed Berberian said.

Legal Aftermath

The district attorney's office has since released the McBride memo to numerous defense attorneys whose clients were arrested in Williams' cases. District Attorney Ed Berberian said his office was legally obligated to disclose the information, but Sheriff Doyle said the disclosure violated Williams' due process rights as a police employee.

So far, the Sarah Rawlins episode has prompted challenges in at least four other cases involving Williams:

Joseph Ebeyer, who was arrested by Williams on drunken driving and firearms allegations in 2006, challenged prosecutors over Williams' credibility and demanded access to one of his informants. Prosecutors resisted, and Judge Stephen Graham tossed the case out of court in early February. Ebeyer represented himself with the help of a legal adviser, Mary Stearns.

William Stewart Smith, charged with selling drugs to Williams while the detective was under cover, has subpoenaed Williams to testify this month at his preliminary hearing. Smith's attorney, Jon Rankin, said the prosecution's case hinges on the word of Williams, so he wants to use the Sarah Rawlins case to impeach Williams' credibility.

"We're talking about impeachment to the only witness to these transactions," Rankin told Judge Paul Haakenson, who set a hearing on Tuesday for Williams to testify. Smith has pleaded not guilty.

Gerardo Fernandez Costa, charged with selling ecstasy to Williams during an undercover operation, filed a motion demanding access to the internal investigation on Williams. Costa, who has pleaded not guilty, became a suspect based on a tip from an unidentified informant working for Williams. Costa's public defender, Michael Coffino, said the informant might have been Sarah Rawlins.

"Deputy Williams engaged in systematic abuse of his power as a government agent by coercing Sarah Rawlins A to have sexual relations with him," Coffino wrote in the motion.

Judge John Sutro denied the motion last week, and the case is scheduled to proceed on Monday.

Gerald Paganelli, a 22-year-old Novato man arrested in a task force case in December 2006, has also filed a motion seeking the internal records on Williams. Paganelli was identified as a suspected marijuana dealer by a confidential informant working for Williams, according to court documents.

"Defense counsel has just received astonishing A material from the prosecutor in this case," Paganelli's lawyer, Douglas Horngrad, wrote in a motion in January. "If the allegations against Officer Williams A are true, it will obliterate his credibility."

Judge Kelly Simmons is scheduled to consider the motion on March 19. Paganelli has pleaded not guilty.

The number of cases affected by the Williams controversy might not be known for months. The district attorney's office is still reviewing cases as they come up on the court calendar to assess whether the defense should be formally notified about Rawlins' allegations.

Career officer

Williams was removed from the Major Crimes Task Force in the wake of the Rawlins case and reassigned to the county jail. He was still assigned to the jail when he turned in his resignation last month.

Williams has previously declined to comment on the Rawlins matter, and numerous attempts to reach him in recent weeks have been unsuccessful. Rawlins also could not be reached for comment.

Williams, 39, is a 12-year police veteran who has worked at the local, state and federal levels. After earning a business degree in 1992 at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., he took graduate classes in criminal justice, then completed a four-month police academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga.

He was then hired by the U.S. Park Police in San Francisco, where he worked for approximately four years. He left voluntarily in 1999 to work for the California Highway Patrol, said Rich Weideman, a spokesman for the National Park Service.

Williams worked for the CHP until 2005, when he voluntarily resigned to join the Marin County Sheriff's Office, said CHP spokeswoman Jaime Coffee.

Williams' ability to win new jobs over that period suggests that he passed stringent police background checks without raising red flags. But if his career appears to be a smooth flight before Marin, it hit some turbulence thereafter.

Assigned to patrol in Bolinas, Williams generated local resentment and stories in the weekly Point Reyes Light for his by-the-book enforcement of drunken driving and traffic laws. He got even more attention in September 2006, when he heard something hit his patrol car one night and pulled his gun on shadowy figures on a nearby rooftop.

It turned out to be teenagers who threw an apple at his car.

"I don't think he knew at the time who was on the roof, whether they were kids or someone breaking into a business," said sheriff's Lt. Scott Anderson, who was Williams' supervisor. "The sheriff's department did not have great difficulty with his actions in terms of his drawing his weapon on someone on the roof of a closed business at night."

Williams was transferred out of Bolinas not long after the apple incident, but Anderson said the move was not punitive. Williams was reassigned to the Major Crimes Task Force.

Five months later, the task force recorded an undercover marijuana purchase from a new source: Sarah Rawlins.

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