Learned 8/25/2016 that Book One was temp out of stock at Amazon.com. So I sent a new stock on 8/26. Anyone expecting to purchase can hold on a bit longer for Amazon ( thinking 9/3) or send me an email ray@raytercekbooks.net with your address and book order. We will work out payment later.

Larry Fulton: Ray I got the books the other day… You couldn’t even buy yourself a coffee with what you are charging so I sent you a little extra… Cant wait to start reading… How Come these guys didnt have to stay in Jail longer than they did?… Thanks

Ray Tercek: Feels good when customers appreciate the work that goes into writing and publishing. Thanks Larry. Re the jail time, you will read that this was an investigation of a conspiracy of 150-200 people who were all criminally involved in varying degrees. Our mission was to get to the top, while also bringing other most culpable to justice. We wanted to take down the entire organization. To do this, we used the federal grand jury system, which allowed us to compel testimony from suspects involved in lower level degrees of crimes in exchange for lesser sentences. That methodology, however, comes with greater responsibility– most notably, more intensive investigation of every suspect we compelled to testify. Almost to the point of proving guilt for their individual role in the larger criminal case before bringing them to the grand jury (This, of course, in case the targeted minor suspect refused to testify and chose, instead, to take their chances in the courts). It was a lot of work, not the least of which was to ensure that our selections of the minor (versus major) targets were indeed as we thought. You will see that we were not perfect. Happy reading! And pls forward any other questions to me.

CHAPTER 17   17skullduggery

RELEVANT PASSAGES IN BOOK ONE:

“…In one instance, Barnard neglected to tell Pepe Chavez of a special meeting he had with Alfredo Garcia following the Thunder Valley Nationals races in Bristol, Tennessee. Barnard received two suitcases of cocaine from Garcia. Chavez would not learn about the delivery until later. Much later, after Barnard sold all of it for his own profit. Chavez heard about the incident through Barnard’s less-than-discreet traveling partner, Becky. Becky told Chavez about the delivery of cocaine from Garcia in Tennessee; that Barnard had a premonition about the police, so he sent the product from Tennessee to Portland via Federal Express; and that, coincidentally, airport police stopped the travelers shortly after deplaning in Portland, when they arrived from races in Tennessee. Barnard and his traveling partner were searched but released when the search proved negative.” [Chapter 8, page 71]

“Bristol, Tennessee: May 1982. DEA agents in Tennessee, acting on a tip from an informant, conducted surveillance of James Barnard and female companion Rebecca Ann Basler, who had just boarded a flight to Portland from Bristol. Agents in Portland picked up the surveillance at the PDX airport. The investigators observed suspicious behavior and believed the two subjects were making an effort to conceal their relationship. As Basler picked up luggage, Portland Airport Narcotics Interdiction Task Force (PAINT) investigators confronted her and stopped her. The officers conducted a preliminary investigation of the unopened bags with a trained, drug-sensitive canine. Their drug “sniffer” dog hit on Basler’s bags, providing probable cause to conduct visual search of the luggage. In subsequent search, however, officers found nothing. Without visual evidence, the suspect was released. Nevertheless, the canine master noted that he remains convinced by the dog’s strong reaction, that the luggage did, in fact, contain—or recently had contained—drugs.”[Chapter 10, page 92] 

Joe, take a look at the slideshow visuals on my “Home” page. There you will find a relevant investigative summary. You will also see court transcriptions of the grand jury testimony of Lee Beard, and a drug courier named Paul. As you will find, Barnard’s strategy to foil the searches of investigators, did indeed succeed. Let me know if you have more questions.

Relevant passage in book one [Chapter 6, page 51]:

            “…Maltais’s end of the business was good. Good enough to keep several street dealers busy—dealers who were in for peanuts and some free product. But, there was this setback, when a kilo deal went bad, a total loss. Pepe held Maltais accountable, raised the price on Maltais, and put his two henchmen, Michael Wright and John King (both convicted murderers), in the middle of each future transaction with Maltais.”

ANSWER: On my “Home” page, scroll down to the revolving document window. You will see three pages of excerpts describing the event, pages from an investigative report (some of which has been redacted). You will also find several pages from transcripts of Mardy Maltais’ testimony before the secret federal grand jury. Hope this quells your curiousity on this issue, Joe. Thanks for the feedback!

1. Mardy Maltais: It says he blew a kilo early in his dealings with Chavez, if I understand it right, resulting in future transactions being backstopped by Chavez’s hardheads. Could you expand on this a bit?
2. When Barnard sent the cocaine from Bristol, Tennessee, to Portland, then flew in after and was detained at the airport, did the investigators match the cocaine arriving through Fed Ex or even know [at the time] that it had been sent? Barnard just went and picked it and whistled on his way?

For your enjoyment, here’s an excerpt of a draft chapter that didn’t make the cut in Book Two, “When Police and Politcs Collide”.

Trial of Pepe Chavez

“[To investigate and review the allegation that Officer Gary Harrington leaked evidence of the secret task force investigation and the role of Chief Penny Harrington in the alleged events, Mayor Clark…]  …appointed former United States attorney for the district of Oregon Sidney I. Lezak to chair the special review commission. He also appointed judge John C. Beatty Jr., a retired Multnomah County Circuit Court judge and colonel H. D. Watson of the Oregon State Police Department.

…issues simmered just below the surface. To Clark and others, Lezak was a friend of the cause, ‘a liberal Democrat who worked hard to keep politics out of his office …’57 Yet Sidney Lezak had also been one of Clark’s hand-picked campaign staff during his mayoral election—hardly a detached bystander without loyalty to or patronage of Mayor Clark.

See More ClarkLezakExcerpt

“In November 1984—truth stranger than fiction—a laid-back tavern owner, Bud Clark, won election as mayor of the city of Portland…. Mayor-elect Clark had a merrymaking bent and a nationally noted trademark cry, “Whoop, Whoop!”, attesting to his wild side…

[January 1985] …after taking office, Mayor Clark appointed his new chief, Penny Harrington… on the surface a smiley round-faced personable cop with a boatload of resume…also a fiery, resolute redhead who had brought forty-two civil actions against the city over twenty years to get to her new position…

Read More BudClarkExcerpts.

“[United States District Court, District of Oregon] Judge Redden sentenced Jerry Ruth to six separate eight-year prison terms. He sentenced Michael Palmer to three separate eight-year prison terms. Additionally, he fined Ruth five thousand dollars and Palmer one thousand. During Ruth’s and Palmer’s sentencing, Judge Redden again called the cocaine case “the largest in Northwest history,..”.(easy money)