ABC News: Cops Pressed to Explain Dead Informant
ABC News has now picked up on the story in Florida about Rachel Hoffman, the young woman murdered after Tallahassee police inserted her into a dangerous undercover drug sting. More details have been uncovered, such as the discovery of over five ounces of marijuana at Hoffman’s home, along with scales and baggies.
ABC News: Cops Pressed to Explain Dead Informant
In addition to the 2007 drug charge, authorities also released information about an underage drinking charge Hoffman faced in 2003, as well as multiple instances in which she was targeted by thieves — crimes he said are often related to drugs.“They’re basically pointing the finger at Rachel,” said [defense attorney Johnny] Devine, who served as Hoffman’s attorney after the 2007 bust, in an interview with ABC News. “What does her underage drinking charge have anything to do with what happened to her?”
[Devine] wanted to know why, as her attorney, he did not know about this offer from police — something McCranie said was not uncommon.
“They’re asking her to do something that would put her in a life or death situation,” Devine said. “I have never had any time where the police department has not called me to tell me this is what’s happening.”
Further, Devine said, Hoffman did not have any previous experience with firearms, but authorities knew from the terms of the deal that she would be confronted by a pair of men — one of whom had a violent criminal past — who were carrying at least one gun.
“She had never worked as an undercover agent,” he said. “She had no experience or training in this matter.”
Finally, Hoffman challenged police reluctance to at least share with her family members some details from the murder scene to allow them to grieve.
“They are left to speculate and guess about the cause of her death,” he said. “Was she tortured? Was she beaten?”
While the police continue to defend the decisions that drew Hoffman into her role as an informant, even William “Willie” Meggs, the state’s attorney in Tallahassee who will ultimately prosecute Green and Bradshaw, said that his office should have known about the April raid at Hoffman’s apartment and her subsequent deal with authorities.
“We would have liked to have known and we did not,” Meggs told ABC News, stressing that as a participant in the drug court, Hoffman already had a relationship with a case worker in the program and should not have any kind of drug interaction involving police without his office knowing.
The police continue to play “blame the victim”, saying that what killed Hoffman was two murderers and her “drug lifestyle”. But Hoffman was only involved in small amounts of marijuana and was never involved with guns, so to send her on a drug buy for 1500 ecstasy pills, two ounces of coke, and a handgun was completely out of her character. This is not the kind of nuance that is lost on hard-core drug dealers, especially when you have been recently released from police custody and you ask to meet them in a public place.
Tags: Florida, Rachel Hoffman, Tallahassee
