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Drug agent testifies
Trial continues for former jailer
April 1, 2011
By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY - Court reporter
(cbobby@tribtoday.com)
Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com
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WARREN - Detective Fred Raines never expected Brandi Lynn
Watson to volunteer all the information she did after she was arrested Jan.
16, 2010, and thrown in Trumbull County Jail.
Watson, a 27-year-old mother of four, had been tracked down in a garage on
Atlantic Street in Warren after a high-speed chase that authorities say
reached speeds of 70 mph on the city's northeast and southeast sides. During
the chase, Watson and her drug dealer-partner, Frederick Johnson, threw out
a loaded gun and sizeable amounts of heroin and cocaine they had bought in
Detroit, authorities said.
Two of Warren's K-9 officers confiscated the drugs in front yards and the
gun was found.
Johnson meanwhile escaped a slew of drug agents and Warren police looking
for him. He turned himself in to authorities a day or two later through his
federal parole officer.
But no one could say positively it was Johnson behind the wheel of the gold
1996 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that is until Watson told Raines all about the
ordeal.
Raines, who works for Trumbull-Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force,
took criticism from defense attorneys Mark Lavelle, representing Johnson,
and Jeff Limbian, representing Watson, for not using a formal Miranda Rights
warning form.
He didn't have a recorder of any kind and admitted to Lavelle he didn't even
have a pen or pencil with him during the questioning.
Raines said he simply interviewed Watson about 2:30 a.m. to see if she would
agree to cooperate and give him a taped statement later.
A day or so later, Raines summarized his 40-minute conversation with Watson,
who revealed precise details agents needed, including Johnson's involvement.
Watson declined any interview later.
''She told me Fred (Johnson) would try the case just to find out who did
him,'' Raines told a jury in the courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos Thursday.
Besides his conversation, assistant county prosecutor Chris Becker used
Raines to introduce jail telephone recordings with Watson talking to her
brother and revealing a lot about the chase along with her concern about her
kids.
She told Raines the .40 caliber Glock pistol was hers and that she kept it
for protection. She said she had a carry-concealed permit.
She said the 400 grams of heroin and the 4.5 ounces of cocaine were the most
she and Johnson ever brought back from Detroit, where they would buy off
Johnson's brother over the preceding year.
Although Raines had only his memory and his summary to rely on, he also had
the backing of Matthew Harrell, a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol
Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, who was with him and who started to testify
on direct examination.
Harrell, a former Secret Service agent who once guarded President Bill
Clinton, confirmed Raines' version of the early morning interview and was
about to be cross examined by the two defense attorneys when Kontos excused
the jury to hear other arguments that included the defense lawyers' request
to have a copy of any report Harrell turned in on the incident.
An official request has to be made to the federal government for the report
and an answer to the request could take until next week, when Harrell may
finish his testimony.
In the meantime, lead investigator Rick Tackett, also with TAG, took the
witness stand and will be cross examined today, when the prosecution most
likely will rest with the exception of any further testimony from Harrell.
Tackett went over evidence that included paperwork in the form of receipts
and bills from a home on Wallace Street S.E. that Watson shared with
Johnson.
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