TheAgitator.com
Report from Chesapeake: Possible Second Informant Emerges in Ryan Frederick Case
Friday, June 13th, 2008Twenty-eight-year-old Ryan Frederick currently sits in a jail in Chesapeake, Viginia for killing Det. Jarrod Shivers during a drug raid on Frederick’s home. He had no criminal record, and just a misdemeanor amount of marijuana in his home. He also says someone broke into his home three nights before the raid. He’s being charged with capital murder and felony manufacture of marijuana.
The raid was conducted based solely on the word of a confidential informant. Police made no attempt to buy drugs from Frederick. A couple of weeks ago, local TV station WTKR identified the police informant in the case, a 20-year-old man named Steven who had several charges pending against him at the time of the raid, was dating the sister of Frederick’s fiance, and had a standing grudge with Frederick. The station reported that Frederick and his friends and family believe Steven was the one who broke into Frederick’s home the same week of the raid.
Last week I received a tip that there may have been a second man involved in the break-in at Ryan Frederick’s house. My source has spoken to the man a few times over the last few months, and says the man has confirmed not only that he and Steven together broke into Frederick’s house at the behest of the police, but that the two had been working as paid police informants for months—and had actually broken into several houses around Chesapeake, all with the blessing of Chesapeake police officers.
The second man is currently in the Chesapeake City jail. I don’t see any point in revealing his identity right now, so I’ll just call him "Reggie." I called the jail and arranged an interview with Reggie set for last Saturday afternoon. The jail checked with Reggie, who then asked what the interview would be about. I mentioned Steven’s name, and Reggie agreed to the interview.
Reggie initially was reluctant to talk to me (more on that later). Between the time I arranged the interview and the time I drove to Chesapeake to speak with him, his attorney had instructed him not to talk to me at all. I asked if he’d be more willing to talk if I didn’t use his name. He responded that he’s not worried about retaliation for being a snitch, he’s worried about retaliation from the police.
Still, after a few minutes, he did begin to corroborate some of the things my source told me.
Reggie told me he knows Steven "from the streets." He confirmed that the two had been working as paid police informants for several months. The police would pay them to find stashes of drugs or evidence of burglaries. I asked Reggie if the police ever encouraged him to actually break into a home to look for information, as he had told my source. Reggie hesitated, then declined to say. "I don’t want to get into any more trouble," he said.
I then mentioned my source, and asked if Reggie he had spoken with him. He said "yes." I asked if what he told my source was true. He again said "yes," but added that he was scared, and "that’s not something I can get into right now. I just want to do my time and go home."
Because they were regularly working with the police, the two men seem to have started to think they were above the law. Last January, just a few days before the Ryan Frederick raid, Steven was arrested and charged with credit card fraud and grand larceny for some credit cards police say he stole last December.
Reggie told me Steven contacted him shortly after that arrest, and told him about the charges. He says Steven told him he had worked out a deal with the police where they’d help him with the credit card charges if he could bring back evidence that Ryan Frederick was growing marijuana.
Reggie says he and Steven then broke into Frederick’s detached garage to obtain evidence against Frederick. Once again, I asked if the police knew about the break-in. Reggie again refused to answer, and again explained that he was afraid of possible retaliation from the police.
Reggie said he’s personally never met Frederick, and that the break-in at Frederick’s house all went through Steven. He said he saw television reports of the raid later that week, and immediately knew it was the same house he and Steven had broken into days earlier.
Reggie was arrested a few weeks later on February 12 on a burglary charge he says was trumped up.
Reggie has a long record. In May 2007 he pleaded guilty to burglary, grand larceny, and breaking and entering. He served six months of a three-year sentence on those charges, with the rest suspended. He was released in August. In 2006 he was charged with burglary and arson of an occupied dwelling. Those charges were nolle prossed, meaning the prosecutor could refile them within the statute of limitations if he wished.
But Reggie says the burglary charge on February 12 was concocted to keep him quiet about the Frederick raid. If what he told my source is true—that the police were encouraging informants to break into private residences to gather evidence—that’s pretty damning. It would amount to actual criminal conduct by members of the Chesapeake Police Department.
Reggie explained to me last weekend that one reason he was reluctant to talk to me is that shortly after he spoke to my source earlier this year, the police added additional charges to rap sheet. He believes this too was retaliatory, and designed to keep him quiet. This, he said, is why he couldn’t be as forthcoming with me. He was denied bail on February 14th, and has been in the city jail ever since.
A search of the Chesapeake General Court’s public records presents a time-line that supports Reggie’s story. He was arrested on February 12 on charges of burglary, grand larceny, and credit card larceny. He spoke to my source a few times over the next several weeks. On June 5, the police then added another grand larceny charge, and a charge of entering a house to commit assault and battery. At that point, Reggie stopped talking to my source.
We also know that the credit card charges for which Steven was arrested in January were dropped in April. They were then reinstated in May, and Steven was indicted. On May 19 a warrant was issued for his arrest. I was able to get in touch with a friend of Steven’s, who made it rather clear that Steven isn’t interested in talking to journalists right now.
So at the very least, here, we now have more confirmation that informants working for the police illegally broke into Ryan Frederick’s home three days before the drug raid. At worst, they may have done so with the consent of the police, this may not have been the first time they’ve done so, and the police may be intimidating the two men to prevent them from talking about it.
Moreover, you also have the unfortunate scenario where two men who may be the most important witnesses in Ryan Frederick’s trial are facing a slew of charges of their own, and basically at the mercy of the very police department their testimony could implicate.
Back in January, Chesapeake City Manager William Harrell hired an outside firm to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the city police department. So it seems clear that some officials in Chesapeake city government know there are problems. Given the circumstances of this case, though, and that a man’s life may be on the line, these latest allegations merit an outside investigation of Chesapeake PD, if not by Virginia Attorney General Bob McConnell, then by U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg.
Prior archive of Frederick posts here.
It appears that there might be both VA and Federal criminal acts by the Chesapeake PD, if the news articles are correct.
Can the Chesapeake PD and its individual officers be charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, to commit perjury, to violate RICO and to deprive Frederick of his civil rights? In VA, who has the authority (or obligation) investigate a municipal PD?
chsw (not an attorney)
Forget the US Attorney, I’d have the DOJ’s investigators and the FBI on top of this. This is shameful.
In a perfect world… I would love to think that those in power would do the right thing with this situation.
But there is no way in hell VA’s Attorney General is going to bring down a town’s police department with testimony attributed to someone they can tag with the “career criminal” designation.
” My source has spoken to the man a few times over the last few months, and says the man has confirmed not only that he and Steven together broke into Frederick’s house at the behest of the police, but that the two had been working as paid police informants for months—and had actually broken into several houses around Chesapeake, all with the blessing of Chesapeake police officers.”
If this is actually true, that should be enough to put an end to this fiasco. Great work, Radley. Excellent job.
At first I had felt sorry for the dead officer, wrong place, bad procedure ending in an avoidable death. Not anymore. The rest of this officers team should be lined up against a wall and shot for treasonous acts against their fellow citizens.
You hear it all the time, that the most powerful person in the criminal justice system is the prosecutor. Regardless of whether they can even get a conviction, they have in their hands the power to ruin your life. They are not seekers of justice. They are a mortal enemy to anyone charged with a crime. They not only have the power to overcharge you to the point of coercing you into a plea bargain, but they often have at their fingertips the power to coerce testimony against you by threatening the destruction of those who don’t participate in their quest for easy conviction independent of the evidence. It’s utterly delusional to think that someone wouldn’t willingly (even enthusiastically) lie to escape years of incarceration.
And the worst part about it all is that prosecutors are rarely held accountable for their misconduct. They’ve got nothin’ to lose.
It’s painful enough to watch it happen to someone else. It has to be emotionally devastating to actually be subject to it.
Hey did you guys see that Patterico linked to this post and is condemning the conduct of the Chesapeake Police Department?
Yeah, I’m kidding.
Don’t want to p in everybody’s cheerios because while I am convinced the facts as Radley has laid out are true, the folks in the law enforcement camp will say in this case the CI’s are “inherently unreliable” (they are only “reliable” when they are used to get a conviction, you see???). Does anyone really think that someone imbued with the “new professionalism” in the DOJ or FBI or State AG’s office will give a crap?
Andrew:
The US Attorney is the DoJ
Excellent work, Balko!
WhiskeyJuvenile:
I’m aware of that. I think this needs to go over him, as high up as it can go.
Hmmm…so now it’s becoming more and more apparent why the Chesapeake police have been refusing to talk to the press.
Two words: Mike. Nifong.
I want to applaud Blako’s subdued writing style in all of this.
Given to a lesser blogger, this post would most likely be written as “INDISPUTIABLE EVIDENCE THAT THE POLICE IN CHESAPEAKE POLICE ARE A BUNCH OF PIG DIRTBAGS!!!!!!! EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT LIBERTY READ THIS!!!!!!” and destroy all credibility to the case.
He just mostly presents the evidence, states his own opinions on what might of happened, and allows the readers to decide for themselves, even though as the case begins to slowly build it turns out that he’s pretty close to being accurate.
“Hey did you guys see that Patterico linked to this post and is condemning the conduct of the Chesapeake Police Department?”
I just about had a stroke on reading that, until the disclaimer.
That sorry-ass sonofabitch: it should be him.
Per CHRIS’s comment.
If the CIs are “inherently unreliable” then the police were wrong to rely on them as the basis of a no-knock warrant. This applies not only to Ryan Frederick, but to the several warrants issued before the Frederick fiasco. If I were a defense attorney in the time frame they describe, I would be looking to invalidate the warrants. The state will have a hard to time arguing that the warrants were valid simultaneous with arguing that the CIs are inherently unreliable.
Do you really think the DOJ or FBI is going to do anything in the Fredrick case? When my son was murdered by the local police, they wouldn’t give us the time of day and the FBI agent handling our case informed us to NEVER call him again, that there was nothing he could or would do. Shameful that the agencies you think will uphold the law will do nothing when it involves a police officer.
Good work Radley!
Isn’t that more than enough information for the police to identify this guy? Let’s hope there’s no “incident” in the jail.
Good job, RADLEY! Investigative reporting at its best.
This is playing out like a comic version of the Bourne series… These clowns think they’re agents and they’re above the law. Hopefully, this will help continue more movement from the courts enforcing our rights.
Good luck to Ryan and here’s hoping he can get out and rebuild his life quickly.
Great work Radley….frankly, I’m amazed that these two informants were as forthcoming about their situation as they were. But the cynical (realist) side of me agrees with Sheri. One law enforcement hand (the FBI/DOJ), will wash the other (Chesapeake PD) just like always. Even if they do find some guilt, they’ll probably pin it on a scapegoat and say that they’ve reformed the department, when it will most likely go back to business as usual. Ryan Frederick may be found guilty or innocent. Either way, I’ll bet that the police in this case won’t get as much as a slap on the wrist.
Having said that, I am glad I do not live in Virginia. The Frederick case, the Sal Culosi case, Rack N Roll Billiards….any updates on the other two?
Good luck on that investigation stuff Radley. My view is that not only that of,
Cops ≡ Criminals, but
Prosecutors ≡ Criminal Enablers.
I know, people will say, “Not all of them.” My rejoinder is that, when these prosecutors learn that there is a bad actor in their midst, they help him cover it up, not expose it. As such they are all scum in my eyes till proven otherwise.
#21 HEAR HEAR! You know that police, judges, and prosecutors KNOW that they are virtually unaccountable, and therefore don’t care what lengths they go to in order to DESTROY someone’s life and the lives around him/her. And if they aren’t doing it, then they certainly know about it and likely don’t speak up and expose it to the world, to hell with the consequences. That’s called integrity and honor, which are characters traits that these cretin don’t possess.
Oh. My. God.
I really can’t think of more blockbuster evidence that there could be in a case like this. I mean, how could anyone think that ANYTHING the police department has done that’s on the up and up after news like this comes out. This isn’t ‘set a thief to catch a thief’. This is ‘be a thief to frame the innocent’. How could anyone living in that town be anything but ashamed of their police?
Gotta agree with Steve and Lee. It’s not just a few bad apples. It’s systemic.
Geez, Radley, this is one great piece of reporting. You are the wind beneath my wings.
Getting any calls from the other reporters on the story?
//Can the Chesapeake PD and its individual officers be charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, to commit perjury, to violate RICO and to deprive Frederick of his civil rights?//
If one conspires to commit a burglary in which someone dies, does the Felony Murder rule apply to the conspiracy, or does it only apply to the people directly involved in the act of burglary?
I see no reason why a legitimate government would not seek to prosecute for Murder in the First Degree all the people who knowingly assisted in attaining or serving perjured warrants in the Ryan Frederick case.
Very good reporting. But its odd that no one besides R.B. is picking up on this. Are any other news sources going to run with this? When are you going to speak with the second informant’s lawyer. If the kid is afraid of the police, there should be precedent for bringing in federal protective custody and investigators, ala Atlanta.
I think R.B. stuck his neck way out on this one. I hope it pans out, because otherwise his credibility will take a blow. The fact he surely knows that is one reason I’m tending to think this is legit.
See, this is why despite my difference in political philosophy, I think RB is one of the best reporters out there. Where is the local press on this?
Newest:
Family alleges CPD patched up bullet holes in Ryan’s home.
http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=8513927
Did Police Shoot At Ryan Frederick? His Family Thinks So
The hands of six Chesapeake detectives present at the botched marijuana raid on Ryan Frederick’s house have tested positive for “primer residue,” meaning they had traces of chemicals on their hands sometimes left behind when a person fires a gun, according to a lab report filed in court.
The lab report also said the residue can be left if a person is near weapon as it fires, or if a person handles a weapon with primer residue already on it. Police have insisted no officers fired during the Jan. 17 raid where police went looking for marijuana. Police contend Frederick alone opened fire, with one bullet killing narcotics detective Jarrod Shivers.
…
Meanwhile, Frederick’s family revealed a bullet hole inside the home they say was caused by police fire. The hole passes through a corner by Frederick’s back bedroom. Family members said, and Frederick’s attorney confirmed, that police went to the home days after the shooting and plugged the hole with some kind of putty or filler. Defense investigators have pictures of the hole before and after the filler was added, according to attorney James Broccoletti. Police would not comment on that, nor answer any other questions for this story.
…
[...] attempting to get in touch with Ryan Frederick’s attorney James Broccoletti for comment on my report last week about a possible second informant in the case who confirmed that he and a man named [...]
Great reporting! Look forward to reading more real facts!
Sucks when criminals get a website that they can all go to and feed their little schhol girl drama/gossip needs. Why is there so much anger and hatred towards the system. Stop blaming everyone else because you are a loser and f*cked your life up! Stop being a part of the problem and start being part of the solution. Stop hating authority and stop blaming everyone else. The fact that you’re a failure is not anybody else’s fault but your own – deal with it!
“Stop hating authority”….. Yeah right, when “authority” stops being hateful to the general population. then it will be time stop hating it.
“That government is best which governs least”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Maybe you need/want a Official/moron in a uniform to tell you how to live every detail of your life but I’ve done pretty well thus far without some retarded asshole telling me how to live every second of my life.
[...] morning, it looks like the Virginian-Pilot will confirm what I first reported back in June: Two men broke into Ryan Frederick’s house three nights before the police raided his home, [...]
What are the chances of getting more coverage of this on Bill O’reilly of Fox news?? There was a little blip about it a couple months ago but nothing since then. This really needs more national attention. Maybe then the prosecutor, having already asked for a change of location for the trial, will ask for it to be tried out of the country!!!
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