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.