Saturday,
May 3, 2003
Border agent gets 8 months in bribery
By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY
STAR
A veteran U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to
eight months in prison for accepting bribes to turn over
agency documents about drug seizures.
Charles D. Brown, 57, sold Border Patrol documents dealing
with marijuana seizures to a person working as a confidential
informant for the FBI, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lacey.
Brown, an agent for 24 years, took $1,000 from the
informant for the documents on three occasions between August
and November 2001.
Brown, of Tucson, was sentenced Thursday on three
corruption charges. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll also
ordered Brown to pay a $2,500 fine.
The forms Brown sold in 2001 were the Border Patrol's I-44
forms, which documented Southern Arizona drug seizures. Drug
dealers can use the forms to account for lost shipments or
verify a trafficker's story of why shipments were lost. "If
they can get a report showing law enforcement seized this
quantity of dope, that protects them," Lacey said.
The arrest came after an investigation by the multi-agency
Southern Arizona Corruption Task Force. It includes the FBI,
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs
Service's internal affairs office, and the U.S. Attorney's
Office, among others.
Lacey said he could not comment on why Brown was singled
out for the undercover investigation. But he said the
confidential informant who bribed Brown had been cooperating
with the FBI.
The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Brown in February 2002
after his arrest. He pleaded guilty in October.
During the investigation, Brown admitted to having sold
I-44 documents two years before his arrest, Lacey said.
"I felt the sentence was pretty harsh for what he did,"
said Kathleen Williamson, Brown's attorney. "He was very
careful not to disclose anything else in those reports."
She said Brown handed over I-44 form cover sheets,
withholding investigative strategy and confidential
information.
She said he served a long career with the Border Patrol
with no blemishes on his employee record, adding that the
sentence will be a deterrent to other officers, alerting them
that corruption will not be tolerated.
Brown is out on bond. He's due to surrender on May 29, when
he will begin serving his sentence.
* Contact reporter Michael Marizco at 573-4213 or mmarizco@azstarnet.com.
