DEA Agent Keith Humphreys pushed aside signs that his informants were lying to get shorter sentences once they falsely accused businessman Pete Benevides of drug trafficking. With that discovered, all accusations have been dropped, and Mr. Benevides has been released after spending eight months in jail.
Orlando, FL June 21, 2010 – It was “highly unlikely,” stated Judge Karla Spaulding, that a successful businessman such as Pete Benevides would get active in the drug trade, however the false reports cobbled together by an overzealous DEA Agent were sufficient to keep him locked up pending trial for eight months. Once the lies were lastly found out, Benevides was released and all charges were dropped.
It all started in January of 2009, pilot Kenneth Henderson of Gulf Breeze was arrested as he taxied in to Pensacola Aviation Center, with greater than 5 kilograms of Cocaine on-board his hired plane. He worked as a contract pilot for Benevides’ company Skyview Aviation. At the time of his arrest, Henderson was not on company time, nor flying one Skyview Aviation’s airplanes.
Henderson implicated his friend Marvin Jackson, another pilot employed by Benevides. Facing lifetime sentences if convicted, they consented to talk to authorities, accusing Mr. Benevides of financing their operation, flying down to the Dominican Republic to acquire large quantities of Cocaine, then smuggling it to Florida.
Their request bargain netted Henderson 17 years behind bars, while Jackson was sentenced to nine years. On September 16, 2009, Mr. Benevides was busted, depending on their accounts, as well as that of a paid informant for the DEA, a disgruntled former worker, who’d sworn revenge.
Subsequent his arrest, Judge Spaulding presided over a 4 day hearing where she heard evidence over whether Benevides must be denied bail. She criticized the DEA Agent Keith Humphreys for testifying on behalf of the two accusers, along with faltering to give reports that could have refreshed his memory regarding the incongruencies in their accounts. Defense Attorney Kevin Darken of Tampa would later write in court filing, “The magistrate judge was asked to think an unlikely, inconsistent tale told through convicted conspirators.”
Several respected and well-known members of the community talked out in support of Benevides, during this time period, including Emit Foster, CEO of National Bank of Georgia and Cleveland Hightower, president of Banker’s Credit Corporation.
Benevides has been an active section of Orlando community for over ten years, broadly regarded as a friendly dynamic business partner. He currently is the owner of over a dozen companies, including Skyview Aviation, a construction business, a funeral home, and a luxury car rental service, He’s been seriously associated with children’s charities over time and two years ago prior to the misfortune of Caylee Anthony’s murder, he put up a six-figure reward for any info resulting in a safe return of Caylee Anthony.
Benevides chose to fight the accusation, regardless of the life sentence he would suffer if he was found accountable. As his court date approached he waited behind bars, looking towards the chance to confirm his innocence. At the same time, the DEA ready Henderson and Jackson for their court appearances. The testimonies of the 2 men were the linchpin in the case versus Benevides, yet right from the start there had been incongruencies in their records. In a pretrial interview Henderson made statements which were materially irregular from those he had made earlier. Based on that, and the two’s admission of lying to the court on other matters, the indictment against Benevides was lastly dismissed.
“I’m merely glad to be home,” said Benevides, “All that time waiting, understanding I was innocent however which I might be found guilty anyways….I only keep thinking about my good friends and supporters on the outside. Their faith in me is what kept me going.”
This is barely the very first time that the DEA’s overzealousness has triggered a mockery of justice. In 2008 DEA Agent Lee Lucas botched a major drug case in Mansfield, Ohio when his informant Jerrell Bray admitted to lying. Of the 26 individuals indicted, accusations were thrown out for all yet three of them. Bray is presently serving 15 years for perjury, while federal grand jury investigates Lucas’ role in all of this.
In 1993 this same agent had introduced a case against Von Schlieffen, a Florida entrepreneur, which was likewise tainted by fake accounts. Only that time the facts didn’t come out for 7 years, at which point the innocent man was released from prison, only to die of natural causes shortly thereafter in 2003. The case against the government, because of their agents’ actions of bad faith, is still making its way by the courts and could wind up costing taxpayers $356,000.
DEA agents are hardly ever held to the similar level of responsibility as other members of the public service. With the War on Medicines as a cover, too little supervision, as well as the chance to overrule local police departments, there are lots of possibilities for corruption in the DEA. At times this corruption takes the most obvious form, as it did in the case of Richard Cramer, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent whose work with the DEA authorized him to get linked to a cocaine smuggling operation. Yet other times it goes in the other direction, into overzealous policing, using paid, secret informants to indict innocent individuals.
In contrast to police officers, who should go through 2 years of training, DEA agents only go through a sixteen week resident program. Only 30-60% of them originated from a police or military background, the remainder having no prior training in any respect. Their site describes the training, saying “An integral part of basic agent training is a emphasis upon…Leadership and Ethics, Human Dignity and Sound Judgment” yet this is hard to square with the numerous abuses the DEA is becoming known for.
Having less training, deficiency of oversight, and also the use of paid informants is a poisonous blend. While the police search for quality prosecutions, it appears the DEA is more interest in quantity.
Luckily for Benevides, his buddies, family, employees as well as business partners, this time around it only took eight months for the truth to come out.
Related Links: DEA Agent and His Rogue Informant Could Cost Taxpayers $356: http://www.brodenmickelsen.com/blog/making-the-government-pay/
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