Meggs says he won't prosecute (Florida) DEA cases

[flashl]

August 8, 2008

By Jennifer Portman
TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER

State Attorney Willie Meggs has advised state and local law-enforcement agencies that he will no longer prosecute cases that involve federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Meggs' decision, outlined in a letter sent to agencies Wednesday, follows last week's grand-jury hearing in which DEA agents were not allowed to testify voluntarily in the Rachel Hoffman case.

"It's probably more symbolic than it is substantive, but I am very serious about it," Meggs, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, said Thursday. "I'm just not going to play that little game with those folks. ... I can't work with people who don't cooperate."

Hoffman, 23, was working as a confidential informant for the Tallahassee Police Department in May when she was killed in a botched drug sting. Three DEA officers were involved in the operation.

Grand jurors, in a scathing presentment Friday that deemed TPD negligent in Hoffman's death, recommended that the department not work with the DEA until the agents are allowed to testify.

[glowing]

1. Good. That is a shitty thing.. the girl smokes a bit of pot..lives a bit wild..

gets caught and is turned into an informant? Where is her protection? AND instead of giving her something to change her life with, they pushed her into the drug scene even more.. then she dies in a horrific way. Someone has got to stop these agencies from doing these things.