Police Drug Sting Operation Upheld

SANTA ANA —  A controversial undercover operation in which Santa Ana police manufactured and sold rock cocaine in order to snare prospective drug buyers is legal under state law, an appellate court has ruled.

The decision, hailed by prosecutors and police but criticized by public defenders, overturned an earlier ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who called the program “outrageous” and effectively forced police to end it two years ago.

But the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the operation is within the legal limits of a California law that gives police officers “immunity to criminal prosecution,” Associate Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. wrote.

The issues raised in the ruling date back to a 1995 court hearing for Robert Ramos, one of more than 400 people arrested during sting operations using the manufactured drugs.

Ramos, a self-employed carpenter, was convicted by a jury of buying $15 worth of police-manufactured rock cocaine, but Carter refused to grant police a court order enabling them to continue turning powder cocaine into its rock derivative.

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Judge Carter lambasted the program, questioning whether “taxpayers wanted to spend their money manufacturing rock cocaine” and suggesting that law enforcement’s efforts could be better placed.

Carter’s opposition and other roadblocks eventually led police to shelve the program.

In appealing his case, Ramos’ attorney argued that the sting operation constituted “outrageous police misconduct.”

The appellate justices disagreed. They stated that the law recognizes that police investigators sometimes must break the law--for example, by posing as addicts or sellers--in order to uphold it.

“The sale of crack cocaine by undercover Santa Ana police officers may have been nefarious and illegal, but it is undertaken as part of a criminal investigation and was appropriate,” Crosby wrote in the decision.

On Friday, Carter said the county’s Superior Court will comply with the appellate panel’s decision, but declined to comment further.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carl Armbrust, who assisted Santa Ana police in coordinating the undercover drug-manufacturing operation, was pleased with the decision.

“We were well within the law,” he said. “We had the right to go out and do this.”

Santa Ana Police Capt. Dan McCoy said his department has not decided whether to restart the program.

For about 18 months between 1993 and 1995, police made rock cocaine in a Sheriff’s Department laboratory using powder cocaine left over from closed cases. Undercover investigators then used the rocks to arrest unsuspecting buyers, Armbrust said.

All but 10 cases, including Ramos’, ended in plea agreements because “there’s no defense for this,” Armbrust said.

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But critics said police officers were selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school and failed to account for nearly 40% of the rock cocaine they sold, which was presumably swallowed, used or lost.

In the appellate decision, Crosby acknowledged that “accounting techniques here were shoddy at best, and they can and should [if the program is repeated] be improved.”

Jill Lansing, who represented Ramos in the appeal process, said the decision reflects a tolerance for questionable police behavior.

“I’m very disappointed by [the ruling]. . . . Our position was that a trial judge made a finding that it was outrageous police conduct and once you make such a finding, then it is a denial of due process.”