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Prominent Roseburg defense attorney David Terry is under investigation by federal officials looking to link him with a syndicate accused of selling tens of millions of dollars of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Federal investigators served a warrant just after 7 a.m. Wednesday at Terry’s office at 1228 S.E. Douglas Ave. They spent six hours looking through business, financial, property, personal and travel records, he said. They also left with data from four office computers.
“They didn’t find anything incriminating at all,” Terry said in a voice mail message left Friday for a reporter.
That day, The News-Review determined Terry was the “Attorney A” mentioned extensively in a 196-page indictment and who the government has accused of laundering drug profits for the syndicate. The match was made after obtaining documents referenced in the indictment that pertain to the attorney.
Terry has not been charged with a crime.
On Saturday, Terry confirmed the connection. However, he denied any wrongdoing.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
The indictment charging a dozen suspects with a host of crimes claimed that much of the drug ring’s criminal activity was accomplished through the help of Attorney A. It called him an “associate of the enterprise” and said he laundered drug profits and provided legal advice on how the suspects could avoid getting caught and to ensure that any associates who got arrested wouldn’t cooperate with police.
“I don’t tell people how to commit crimes,” said Terry, who has worked as a criminal defense attorney in Roseburg since 1979, following stints as a prosecutor in Douglas and Union counties.
Terry said the money laundering accusation seems to stem from a land sale last year in Mexico. He said he and his wife, along with 10 other couples, bought a place in Baja California.
“It was a completely legitimate purchase made with other couples, but it involved having to wire money down to Mexico and the government apparently thinks that was a money laundering effort. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Terry’s identification as Attorney A was made by examining documents mentioned in the indictment about a 1993 murder investigation in which one of Attorney A’s clients was questioned by a grand jury.
On Friday, following a public records request, The News-Review obtained a copy of two letters between Terry and Bill Marshall, the deputy Douglas County district attorney who handled that murder case. The letters contained the same wording that was quoted in the indictment.
The client Terry represented at that time was Kent Allen Jones, who is accused of being the ringleader of the drug syndicate. He was not charged in the murder case and another man later confessed to the crime.
Terry had also previously represented three of the other defendants charged in the drug syndicate case, according to Douglas County Circuit Court records. They are Harold Carl Ballenger, Mark Daniel Kitzman and Mark M. Alders.
Terry was accused of having frequent contact with Jones and many of the other suspects arrested in the case.
The indictment said that Attorney A or someone from his office ran vehicle registration checks in 1991 on sheriff’s surveillance vehicles that were tailing Jones.
It also said that when Jones purchased between 50 and 100 pounds of marijuana in Portland in December 1992, he stayed at a motel room that was paid for with Attorney A’s credit card.
Terry denied that his credit card had ever been used by someone else.
In 1993, while Attorney A represented a client in a marijuana manufacturing case, a police officer accused the lawyer of being a ringleader “of a bunch of drug dealers” and laundering their profits, according to the indictment. The attorney denied the charges.
Attorney A was also accused of accepting $20,000 from one of the suspects in the drug syndicate case back in 2000 and not properly accounting for it.
The indictment said Gerald Francis McDonald and an unindicted co-conspirator removed the money from a storage locker in Orange County, Calif., and took it to Attorney A in Roseburg.
In Attorney A’s presence, McDonald told his partner, identified as “CS” in the indictment, to retrieve the money from their vehicle and give it to Attorney A’s receptionist. No receipt was given for the money, the indictment said.
In March 2003, the indictment said Attorney A used his credit card to pay $8,400 for a bond for a prisoner who was arrested in Iowa after being caught transporting 200 pounds of marijuana. The day after the payment was made, the suspect, referred to as “BN”, received a telephone call from Jones.
While local and federal authorities were investigating the drug ring last year, the indictment said Attorney A received two anonymous letters mailed from Portland warning him that federal indictments were imminent against himself, Jones and others.
The first letter, sent on Aug. 25, 2005, claimed the writer had a mutual friend in law enforcement with access to information on the ongoing investigation. It said if Attorney A wanted information on the investigation, “it will cost you.” The letter, which also claimed telephone wire taps were being used, told the lawyer he should speak with Jones.
Attorney A later forwarded the letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland.
Two weeks later, Attorney A received a second letter. It detailed how the case against Attorney A was presented to a grand jury in Boise, Idaho, where the drug ring investigation was being conducted. It also identified the two assistant U.S. attorneys handling the case as well as investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, the Oregon Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“As I said before, my friend has access to the entire case and is willing to help,” the indictment quoted the letter as saying. “Time is extremely short and the choice is yours. The cost for his help is $200,000.”
That letter was also sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland. Because the letter was threatening, federal authorities offered the assistance of the FBI to investigate the source of the letters. Attorney A declined the offer, the indictment said.
As word of the investigation into Terry’s activities spread last week through the local legal community, he said he received many calls of support from police officers, judges, prosecutors and other attorneys.
“It’s just enormously gratifying to enjoy that kind of support, not only from friends and family but folks that you square up and work with and against in court all the time,” Terry said in his voice mail message Friday to The News-Review.
On Saturday, Terry said he’s proud of the work he has done in this community and that he will continue to hold his head high. He said he believes that at least a portion of the information collected by the government against him came from his former law office partner, who was fired and later sent to prison for trading legal services for sex with an underage client in Coos County.
Terry said he wasn’t sure whether he would be indicted.
“I have no idea. If they are going to take evidence from perjured convicts, you never know,” he said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
Federal investigators served a warrant just after 7 a.m. Wednesday at Terry’s office at 1228 S.E. Douglas Ave. They spent six hours looking through business, financial, property, personal and travel records, he said. They also left with data from four office computers.
“They didn’t find anything incriminating at all,” Terry said in a voice mail message left Friday for a reporter.
That day, The News-Review determined Terry was the “Attorney A” mentioned extensively in a 196-page indictment and who the government has accused of laundering drug profits for the syndicate. The match was made after obtaining documents referenced in the indictment that pertain to the attorney.
Terry has not been charged with a crime.
On Saturday, Terry confirmed the connection. However, he denied any wrongdoing.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
The indictment charging a dozen suspects with a host of crimes claimed that much of the drug ring’s criminal activity was accomplished through the help of Attorney A. It called him an “associate of the enterprise” and said he laundered drug profits and provided legal advice on how the suspects could avoid getting caught and to ensure that any associates who got arrested wouldn’t cooperate with police.
“I don’t tell people how to commit crimes,” said Terry, who has worked as a criminal defense attorney in Roseburg since 1979, following stints as a prosecutor in Douglas and Union counties.
Terry said the money laundering accusation seems to stem from a land sale last year in Mexico. He said he and his wife, along with 10 other couples, bought a place in Baja California.
“It was a completely legitimate purchase made with other couples, but it involved having to wire money down to Mexico and the government apparently thinks that was a money laundering effort. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Terry’s identification as Attorney A was made by examining documents mentioned in the indictment about a 1993 murder investigation in which one of Attorney A’s clients was questioned by a grand jury.
On Friday, following a public records request, The News-Review obtained a copy of two letters between Terry and Bill Marshall, the deputy Douglas County district attorney who handled that murder case. The letters contained the same wording that was quoted in the indictment.
The client Terry represented at that time was Kent Allen Jones, who is accused of being the ringleader of the drug syndicate. He was not charged in the murder case and another man later confessed to the crime.
Terry had also previously represented three of the other defendants charged in the drug syndicate case, according to Douglas County Circuit Court records. They are Harold Carl Ballenger, Mark Daniel Kitzman and Mark M. Alders.
Terry was accused of having frequent contact with Jones and many of the other suspects arrested in the case.
The indictment said that Attorney A or someone from his office ran vehicle registration checks in 1991 on sheriff’s surveillance vehicles that were tailing Jones.
It also said that when Jones purchased between 50 and 100 pounds of marijuana in Portland in December 1992, he stayed at a motel room that was paid for with Attorney A’s credit card.
Terry denied that his credit card had ever been used by someone else.
In 1993, while Attorney A represented a client in a marijuana manufacturing case, a police officer accused the lawyer of being a ringleader “of a bunch of drug dealers” and laundering their profits, according to the indictment. The attorney denied the charges.
Attorney A was also accused of accepting $20,000 from one of the suspects in the drug syndicate case back in 2000 and not properly accounting for it.
The indictment said Gerald Francis McDonald and an unindicted co-conspirator removed the money from a storage locker in Orange County, Calif., and took it to Attorney A in Roseburg.
In Attorney A’s presence, McDonald told his partner, identified as “CS” in the indictment, to retrieve the money from their vehicle and give it to Attorney A’s receptionist. No receipt was given for the money, the indictment said.
In March 2003, the indictment said Attorney A used his credit card to pay $8,400 for a bond for a prisoner who was arrested in Iowa after being caught transporting 200 pounds of marijuana. The day after the payment was made, the suspect, referred to as “BN”, received a telephone call from Jones.
While local and federal authorities were investigating the drug ring last year, the indictment said Attorney A received two anonymous letters mailed from Portland warning him that federal indictments were imminent against himself, Jones and others.
The first letter, sent on Aug. 25, 2005, claimed the writer had a mutual friend in law enforcement with access to information on the ongoing investigation. It said if Attorney A wanted information on the investigation, “it will cost you.” The letter, which also claimed telephone wire taps were being used, told the lawyer he should speak with Jones.
Attorney A later forwarded the letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland.
Two weeks later, Attorney A received a second letter. It detailed how the case against Attorney A was presented to a grand jury in Boise, Idaho, where the drug ring investigation was being conducted. It also identified the two assistant U.S. attorneys handling the case as well as investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, the Oregon Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“As I said before, my friend has access to the entire case and is willing to help,” the indictment quoted the letter as saying. “Time is extremely short and the choice is yours. The cost for his help is $200,000.”
That letter was also sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland. Because the letter was threatening, federal authorities offered the assistance of the FBI to investigate the source of the letters. Attorney A declined the offer, the indictment said.
As word of the investigation into Terry’s activities spread last week through the local legal community, he said he received many calls of support from police officers, judges, prosecutors and other attorneys.
“It’s just enormously gratifying to enjoy that kind of support, not only from friends and family but folks that you square up and work with and against in court all the time,” Terry said in his voice mail message Friday to The News-Review.
On Saturday, Terry said he’s proud of the work he has done in this community and that he will continue to hold his head high. He said he believes that at least a portion of the information collected by the government against him came from his former law office partner, who was fired and later sent to prison for trading legal services for sex with an underage client in Coos County.
Terry said he wasn’t sure whether he would be indicted.
“I have no idea. If they are going to take evidence from perjured convicts, you never know,” he said.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
