Thread: Man Sues Because DEA Still Won’t Pay For Stealing, Damaging His Truck During Botched

Man Sues Because DEA Still Won’t Pay For Stealing, Damaging His Truck During Botched Sting Two Years Ago

November 4, 2013 by Sam Rolley

CHRON

A lawsuit waged against the Federal government by a Houston businessman alleges that the Drug Enforcement Administration “commandeered” his freight truck and destroyed it during a shootout with members of the Zeta drug cartel.
Steven Craig Patty is suing the Federal government, Houston DEA Chief Javier Peña, Harris County, Harris County Det. Mark Reynolds and 12 John Doe law enforcement officers in Federal Court for using him as a pawn in a drug sting operation that could have been taken “straight out a television script.”
Patty quit his job of 15 years and started a trucking company with his father in July 2011 in hopes of capitalizing on the ongoing Texas oil and gas boom.
“He purchased a truck and hired a man named Joe Lopez to drive it,” the lawsuit says.
As the business grew, the businessman bought a second truck, a 2006 Kenworth.
“That same month his driver Lopez was sharing a room with [Lawrence] Chapa at a truck driver seminar in Fort Worth,” according to the complaint. “Through Lopez, Chapa approached Craig about being hired to drive the second red Kenworth. Patty checked Chapa’s record with the Department of Transportation. The record was free of criminal convictions. … It is alleged that the Drug Task Force officers named herein arranged to have a clean record and orchestrated his hiring by Patty.”
Chapa, however, wasn’t just an out-of-work guy looking for a job; he was an undercover DEA agent.
“Therefore, although Patty was paying Chapa’s salary, providing the truck for him to drive, and paying for the gas, instead of pursuing Patty’s legitimate business interests, Lawrence Chapa was actually working in an undercover sting operation for the Drug Task Force,” the lawsuit states.
“On or about November 21, 2011, in furtherance of their plan for the sting, officers of the Drug Task Force arranged for Lawrence Chapa to drive Patty’s truck to Rio Grande City, Texas.” The suit continues, “Chapa told Patty that he was having the truck repaired in Houston for a return drive to California. In fact, on orders of his Drug Task Force handlers, he drove it to Rio Grande City instead, where it was loaded up with marijuana, and, perhaps, other illegal narcotics or contraband.”
If being lied to and having his truck essentially stolen by authorities weren’t bad enough, things then took a turn for the worse for Patty’s property.
From the lawsuit: “When the red Kenworth arrived in Houston, all hell broke loose. The plan for the sting was for Lawrence Chapa to rendezvous with the bad guys so that a transfer of the illegal drugs could be made. At that point, the Task Force officers would swoop in and make arrests. But the officers of the Drug Task Force were outwitted by the Mexican drug lords. On Monday afternoon, November 21, 2011, the truck was intercepted in northwest Houston by outlaws from the Zeta cartel, driving in three sport utility vehicles. An intense firefight ensued. An undercover Harris County sheriff’s deputy was wounded, and Lawrence Chapa was shot eight times and killed. Patty’s red truck was wrecked and riddled with bullet holes.
“It was a major fiasco; and a major media event on the evening news. For example, KTRK ran a six and a half minute story on the shooting. The footage clearly depicted the license plate of Patty’s truck, making him fear, of course, that his identity would be discovered by the Zeta cartel and that they, believing he had cooperated with Chapa and the Task Force, might seek retribution.”
A Houston Chronicle story from July 2012, described the fear that Patty and his family now endure because of the government misadventure:

Panic at the Patty home these days can be triggered by something as simple as a deer scampering through the wooded yard or a car pulling into the driveway. One morning as his wife made breakfast, one of his young sons suddenly bolted across the house yelling, ‘Get the guns!’
A Bronco sport utility vehicle had pulled into the driveway past a broken gate. The dogs were barking in the darkness. Patty grabbed a pistol and headed for the front yard.
The Bronco pulled away, leaving a shiny object by the front walkway. It turned out to be the morning newspaper wrapped in a plastic bag reflecting a neighbor’s floodlight.
The whole ordeal has forced his children to grow up more quickly than he’d like, Patty said.
‘I wanted to keep them young as long as I could,’ he said. ‘I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my son believing in Santa Claus, and now I’m talking to him about death, mayhem and drug cartels.’

After his truck was destroyed, Patty alleges that police called him and ordered that he remove the vehicle from the scene of the crime or be charged a daily storage fee by the cops. The lawsuit also indicates that the police — who put Patty in the predicament to begin with — then ordered a search warrant for the truck that they had taken.
“Patty’s truck contained a tracking device known as a ‘Tele a Tracker.’ It is akin to a black box that records the locations where the truck has been. When the law enforcement officials learned about this device, Detective Reynolds demanded that Patty sign a search warrant, and threatened him with seizure of his truck and trailer if he did not cooperate. Amazingly, the search warrant that was tendered included an authorization to search the Pattys’ home.”
After having his truck taken and damaged by the State, Patty was informed that he would be footing the bill for the damages to his vehicle.
“The government never paid to have Craig Patty’s truck repaired,” according to the complaint. “Nor did his insurance company. The insurance company took the position that the damage was caused by ‘unauthorized’ or ‘illegal’ activity. Consequently, Patty ultimately had to take money out of his 401k retirement funds to pay to have the bullet holes and other physical damage to his truck repaired and to have the blood and other stains removed from the cab.”
The businessman is seeking $1.48 million in damages.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Liberty News, Power Of The State, Staff Reports


http://personalliberty.com/2013/11/0...two-years-ago/

Feds sued for $6.4 million by businessman who says he was unwittingly drawn into DEA informant’s murder

Posted on October 29, 2013
DEA informant killed in 2011 shootout

Lawrence Chapa. Mug shot from controlled substance arrest in 2010.


Eric Deluna charged with capitol murder

Fernando Tavera charged with capitol murder


Ricardo Ramirez charged with capitol murder


Rolando Resendiz charged with capitol murder

The U.S. government and a ranking Drug Enforcement Administration official here are being sued for up to $6.4 million over a wild shootout in which a commercial truck driver moonlighting as a secret informant was slain by gangsters in the proximity of as many as two dozen officers on a counter-narcotics task force .

The dead man’s former boss contends the DEA used his 18-wheeler in the 2011 government sting _ that played out in Harris County _ without permission; refused to repair the bullet-riddled truck after the shooting; and subjected him and his family to unwarranted retaliation by the Zetas cartel, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Houston.

The suit names the U.S. government; the DEA’s Houston Division chief Javier Pena; Harris County Sheriff’s Office detective Mark Reynolds; and as many as a dozen other law enforcement officers whose identities are not yet publicly known.

The DEA had no immediate comment on the suit, which posted at the bottom of this story.

“In the interest of justice we will not discuss pending litigation,” said the sheriff’s office in an email.

The November 2011 shooting has already been a spectacle.

It revealed that truck driver Lawrence Chapa was also working for the government, and exposed a bungled operation to take on smugglers tied to the Zetas, one of the region’s most notorious crime syndicates.

During the melee in which Chapa was killed by cartel-linked attackers, a Houston police officer on the task force shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy, who was also on the scene in plainclothes.

The lawsuit could force authorities to reveal a trove of information regarding exactly what Chapa was doing for the government in the days leading up to the attack, as well as how a drug cartel was able to infiltrate the DEA operation.

“We are going to see how the sausage was made in this undercover operation, and I don’t think they are going to like it,” said Fred Shepherd, who along with fellow Houston lawyer Arnold Vickery, filed the suit.

The 53-year-old Chapa, who had a bald head and a bushy gray mustache, supposedly told the truck’s owner, Craig Patty, that he was taking it to Houston for repairs, when he was actually making a run to the border and back for the DEA.

For Patty, the shooting has been a nightmare that nearly pushed his small North Texas company out of business. He said it has kept him and his family living in fear that the cartel would mistakenly believe that, like the dead driver, he was working for the U.S. government.

Panic at the Patty home these days can be triggered by something as simple as a deer scampering through the wooded yard or a car pulling into the driveway, Patty has told the Chronicle.

He recalled how one morning, as his wife made breakfast, his son bolted across the house yelling, “Get the guns!”

A Bronco sport utility vehicle had pulled into the driveway past a broken gate. Dogs were barking in the pre-dawn darkness. Patty grabbed a pistol and headed for the front yard. The Bronco pulled away, leaving a shiny object that turned out to be a newspaper wrapped in a plastic bag reflecting a floodlight.
His children have grown up too quickly as a result of the DEA ordeal, Patty said.

“I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my son believing in Santa Claus,” Patty said. “And now I’m talking to him about death, mayhem and drug cartels.”

Back in 2011, Chapa was driving Patty’s truck, which was carrying marijuana from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston, as part of an operation to catch drug traffickers waiting for Chapa’s delivery.

Chapa was being trailed by officers wearing civilian clothes and ready to move in and make a bust when Chapa delivered his load. But all were caught by surprise in Harris County, when the truck was ambushed by three vehicles and run off the road.

Chapa was shot to death in the truck’s cab.

Four people are charged with capital murder for Chapa’s death, but they have not yet faced trial.

When the four were initially brought before a magistrate to face charges, prosecutors publicly confirmed that Chapa was an informant.

Just days before the attack, which authorities have said was about hijacking a load of pot instead of killing the informant, one of the men now charged in the case was stopped by Pasadena police as he left a stash house. Eric De Luna was let go by police after they confiscated $5,600 he was carrying, according to court papers. At the time, De Luna was already out on bail while awaiting trial for assault with a deadly weapon.

The lawsuit claims the facts are so “bizarre,” they almost seem implausible.

“To add insult to injury, when the government’s plans went awry, and Patty’s commercial truck was riddled with bullet holes, wrecked, and his driver killed inside the truck, instead of apologizing to a law-abiding citizen and paying for the damage to his property and his business, the government, which had betrayed him, actually turned on him,” the suit states.

Patty’s insurance company declined to fix the truck on the grounds it was used to commit a crime, and the government declined to make it right. So Patty, whose company only has two trucks, took the repair money out of his retirement savings.

The suit further contends that while Chapa has an extensive record of run-ins with the law, the DEA manipulated a Department of Transportation background check so that Chapa would look clean and be hired by Patty.

“When you start a new business, there are obvious pitfalls you go through, a learning curve,” said Patty. “But who would ever be ready to deal with this?

Patty vs USA.pdf


http://blog.chron.com/narcoconfident...er/#17365101=0