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Seizure driven task force with military hardware found using false testimony and planted evidence in drug case

Author: 
Gerry Bello
 

The door came down, the SWAT team came in, and Chad Moore went to prison. The Licking County based Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force (CODE-TF) claims they found a box with bagged methamphetamine in the house, methamphetamine residue in a trailer on the property on Columbus Road in Granville, a marijuana grow operation and a cache of firearms. Four people were detained, only Moore was prosecuted and seizure proceedings were begun by the CODE-TF against the property to finance their paychecks and the purchase of military hardware from the United States Military.

Moore has filed an appeal based on perjured testimony to acquire the warrant. Additional investigation by the Mockingbird has confirmed Moore's claims that the box containing the bagged methamphetamine had been planted by another resident of the house prior to the raid. That resident, Sarah Spring, was not charged. The forfeiture proceedings against the house failed as Moore had only recently taken up residence after signing a rent to own land contract with the legal guardian of the previous owner, who was in residential nursing care. The previous owner was an avid hunter and gun collector and many of the weapons found in the home were museum quality relics in the attic.

 The affidavit to obtain the warrant, sworn under penalty of perjury by Detective Kyle Boerstler, relies heavily on the statements of an unnamed confidential informant. That informant was later named as Andrew Beck. Moore's appeal contains a signed and notarized hand written affidavit from Beck which is completely transcribed below:

 

“I do not know Chad Moore. I have never been to his residence, talked to him on the phone or in person. I did not witness any illegal activity at Chad's residence or anywhere else. I did not tell anyone that I had ever been there because I had not. Andrew Beck. Sworn to and subscribed in my presence on this the 2 day of June 2016 Debbie S. Fabian Commission Expires 12-22-2016”

 

The other informant the Boerstler relied on had been involved in a domestic dispute the night before Boerstler swore out his affidavit. The affidavit obliquely refers to the incident in exceedingly vague terms before moving on to the necessary hearsay. That informant, James Springs, allegedly told Boerstler that Moore was growing between 30 and 40 marijuana plants in the house. The original search warrant report listed two plants weighing 272 grams seized in a brown paper bag. A single immature plant was produced at trial, weighing 113 grams with wet topsoil still in a large clump around it's sickly roots. Less the weight of the soil, the weight of the actual marijuana would rate a $100 fine by the laws of the state of Ohio. As for the alleged grow operation, there were no grow lights or other indoor farming equipment listed in either the seized items nor presented at trial.

Springs plead guilty to his charge of failing to comply with a police officers signal after the raid and received three years probation instead of three years imprisonment. Springs has a criminal record in Franklin County. He was arrested for domestic violence four days after the raid. This caused his probation to be eventually revoked for a previous domestic violence conviction. His criminal record of domestic violence and aggravated menacing goes back over two decades to 1994.

The search warrant lead to the seizures of two laptops, a DVR and both Hess and Moore's cellphones as the CODE-TF hoped to find additional evidence of drug trafficking. Only Hess's phone contained evidence. Her phone was cracked by officers because she selected the unlikely password of “0002.” It contained several text messages from a petson seeking to purchase marijuana from Hess that very day.

A cousin of James Springs, Sarah Springs, had recently moved into the house. In the process of moving  into the raided residence she enlisted a friend of Moore's, James Atkins, in helping her carry her belongings from her car into the house. Atkins, a decorated Special Forces veteran, gave a telephone interview for this story. During the interview he stated repeatedly that he help Hess carry the box that would eventually be found with the methamphetamine into the house. She asked that it be placed in the room where Moore slept alone, unlike her other possessions. The drugs are now known to have been brought into the house by Hess three days prior to the raid.

Sarah Springs can not  account for her time in the week preceding the raid. She was alleged to be involved in the drug trade during the time. She was responsible for bringing the bulk of the evidence seized into the house at a time that was exceedingly convenient for law enforcement to make the most of the charges. This reporter wonders if she was caught in some crime during her wanders and put up to the task by the CODE-TF as all their other so-called evidence for the search warrant is based on outright perjury or a person facing jail time for a repeat offense.

Although all the persons in the house were implicated in some crime or another, only Moore was charged. The remaining methamphetamine was found along with a pipe with residue was found in a trailer that Moore did not live in. Hess was the only one with a provable connection to the Marijuana. However, only Moore had an ownership claim of any kind to the house and it appears as though the true point of this operation was to seize the property for later sale because of it's $170,000 value.

The Licking County Sheriff's office keeps a portion of seizure proceeds from the CODE-TF. These form the bulk of the funding for their military hardware purchases. The Sheriff's Office, like 514 other law enforcement agencies in Ohio, buys military hardware directly under the 1033 program.

Licking County's addiction to seizure sponsored military toys during 2011-2013 included the purchase of 14 M-14 rifles used for sniper work, 34 M-16 assault rifles, 9 .45 caliber pistols, 6 12 gauge riot shotguns and an M-113A2 fully tracked armored personnel carrier. The department has only 126 sworn deputies including bailiffs and prison guards. Their M-113 cost them $244,484 and is one of only two like it in Ohio. Although the cost of military hardware is greater than the cost of a single seized house, the ease with which the Sheriff's Department manufacturers evidence leads one to believe that the value disconnect is intended to be solved through volume.

Chad Moore is sitting in prison. He is no angel. His mother does not claim he is an angel. He is a former biker with a felony record that he admits to and takes responsibility for. This crime is one that he does not admit to, and this crime is one that there is ample evidence that he is not guilty of. But there is a direct profit motive for law enforcement in this and potentially other wrongful arrests and convictions. The Mockingbird will investigate any documented claim of official wrongdoing that it can.