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Informant Questioned On Why He Worked For Police

Informant Questioned On Why He Worked For Police  image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
December
Year
1975
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

A Circuit Court jury is scheduled to begin deliberations today in a narcotics case in which the state's starwitness is a former junkie who says he wants to rid the area of drugs. Danny Baldwin, a former Superior Township resident, spent much of Tuesday on the witness stand, completing testimony against Willie "Meatball" Bowman which he began on Monday. Bowman is charged with three counts of selling heroin. Under .cross examination by Defense Counsel James A. Evashevski, Baldwin repeated that he made three "buys" from Bowman last April and May. (Although Baldwin identified the place of the first purchase of heroin as the alley behind "Keaton's Pool Room" that business place was sold by Mrs. David Keaton in March, 197p. It now operates at the 109 E. Ann Street location under "J. and J. Pool Room.") When Circuit Court Judge William F. Ager Jr. sent the jury home for the day late Tuesday afternoon he told the jurors that thèy would probably have the case for deliberation some time today. The high drama of Tuesday's long day in court carne in cross-examination when Evashevski pressed Baldwin. for a reason why he became a pólice informant. -Tve got a family, three girls, they're coming up in the corhmunity," Baldwin replied. "I don't want them to fall into the same predicament I did. I want to rid the community of drugs." Baldwin admitted the state now pays his $195 per month rent and gives him $75 per week for living expenses. "If you got an average of $65 for each time you went out to make a buy for the pólice wouldn't it be a fair estímate to say you made about $3,000?" Evashevski asked. "I couldn't say. I'd have to figure it," Baldwin replied. He said he made 46 buys from 25 different persons while he was "wired" with a tape recorder and using State Police money. The cross-examination brought an admission from. Baldwin that at one time he had a heroin habit which cost $20 to $50 a day and cold have been as expensive as $150 a day. He said at one time both he and his wife were addicted to heroin. Under the defense counsel s questioning Baldwin said hehas been convicted of four felonies and a misdemeanor and now has two check charges pending against him. Baldwin said he had not been promised leniency on the pending charges if he became a pólice informant although State Pólice Sgt, William B.urns had told him at'one time that he would "do the best I can" in relation to the charges. v Baldwin said Sgt. Burns told him that while.he was in the County Jail last winter on the pending check charges. "You mean depending on what you could do for him?" Defense Counsel Evashevski asked. "In a way," Baldwin replied. The defense attorney asked Baldwin if 'he bélieved his wü'e liad been unfaithful to him and if it was possible he was trying to get revenge on men shé knew by testifying against them. The witness answered "No" to each question. He also answered "No" to the question by Assistant Prosecutor Alan Freedman: "Have you lied under oath. . . . have you tried to set someone up?" " Sta té Pólice Detective Sgt. William Burns, the prosecutor's other main witness in Tuesday's session, told of directing Baldwin in making the heroin purchases last spring. He admitted he told Baldwin he would "do the best I can" , about the pending check charges against him. , , "I thiñk anyone who's done what he s done deserves all the help he can get," Burns said. He said the "strip searcn" of Baldwin before and after he made the heroin purchases were procedures required by his department when a non-police agent was used in undercover narcotics probes. "We wanted to use a black pólice officer and none w,as avaüable," Burns tesi t i f Ï O f ' The final witnesses called by Prosecutor Freedman included Mrs. Kathryn Vandeberg and Dr. Thomas K. Durkin of the Michigan State Pólice Crime Laboratory They testified that tests they made of the substance which Baldwin claims to have purchased from Bowman proved it to be heroin. The heroin ranged from 16 per cent down to .04 per cent in purity, Mrs. Vandeberg and Drukin said. Patrolmen Percy Wright and John J. Ceo of the Ann Arbor Pólice Department and Policewoman Marilyn Horace of the Ypsilanti Pólice Department testified they were members of the Washtenaw Área Narcotics Team which took part in the Baldwin undercover iwwatip"1