Thread: Undercover Hero Wins Landmark Case Against Holder’s DOJ

Undercover Hero Wins Landmark Case Against Holder’s DOJ

5:53 PM 09/23/2014ALFRED S. REGNERY
Chairman, Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund

He got tattoos. He shaved his head. He wore leather. He drove a Harley.

Jay Dobyns, an undercover law enforcement agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) within the Department of Justice (DOJ), infiltrated one of America’s most notorious criminal enterprises – the Hells Angels. From prostitution to arms trafficking to murder and most everything in between, this gang is known especially for its brutality, as well its penchant for retribution.

During the two harrowing years he spent among their ranks in Arizona, Dobyns moved deeper and deeper into the Hell Angels system, even posing as a gun-runner and staging the mock execution of a member of their rival gang, the Mongols Motorcycle Club. His 2002 to 2004 permeation of this organization, known as “Operation Black Biscuit,” led to the successful indictment of 16 gang members responsible for crimes ranging from racketeering to murder.

Such heroism did not come without a price. During the prosecution of these criminals, Dobyns’ true identity was revealed, and the Hells Angels decided to exact their revenge. One evening, while his wife and kids were asleep, unidentified arsonists burned his house to the ground. The group, along with other organized crime rings like the Aryan Brotherhood and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), also frequently threatened the Dobyns family, promising to infect the former agent with the HIV virus, to videotape the gang rape of his wife and daughter and to torture his family for their rest of their days. The gangs also swore that all of this torment would be a mere prelude to their inevitable murders.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms – one of the most dysfunctional agencies in the federal government — totally neglected the Dobyns family and mismanaged their reintegration into society. First, they transferred the officer to different ATF offices across the U.S., forcing them to continually uproot their lives and relocate. In 2006, they abruptly ended the Dobyns family’s “backstopping” – the false narrative created around an individual intended to protect him and his family – including false names, fake license plates, cover stories and the like.

The Dobyns family felt totally exposed and subsequently abandoned. The very government Jay Dobyns risked his life to serve failed to protect him and his family upon completion of his valiant work. To make matters worse, ATF even insinuated that Dobyns himself was responsible for the fire that destroyed his home and threatened the lives of his wife and children.

Outraged by his treatment at the hands of the U.S. federal government, Jay Dobyns took on a new role — this time, as a whistleblower. He courageously detailed how the Department of Justice failed to protect undercover agents. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Office of the Inspector General agreed, saying:

“ATF needlessly and inappropriately delayed its response to, and investigation of, threats against its own agents.” Despite these findings, the Obama administration refused to order new protections for the Dobyns family.

In 2007, a federal judge awarded Dobyns $373,000 for the trauma inflicted upon his family due to the negligence of the government. During the years that followed, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice continually attacked Dobyns, tarnishing his reputation and calling into question his credibility. Dobyns fought back by filing an additional lawsuit against them, claiming that the agency committed a “breach of good faith” by continuing to smear him. Last week, after six years of pricey legal battles, Judge Francis Allegra ruled in favor of Jay Dobyns, awarding him an additional $173,000 in reparations.

• ALFRED S. REGNERY

Alfred S. Regnery is Chairman of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that defends police officers in legal disputes over actions performed while on duty and otherwise supports the law enforcement community, and Chairman of its sister-organization, the Law Enforcement Action Network, a 501 (c)(4) organization.

From 2003 until early 2012 he was Publisher of The American Spectator, a monthly magazine of politics, international affairs and culture. Prior to joining The American Spectator, he was the President and Publisher of Regnery Publishing, Inc. a Washington D.C. book publishing firm from 1986 until 2003.

During the Reagan Administration he served in the US Justice Department as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Land and Natural Resources Division and as Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Department's largest grant making agency.

Mr. Regnery has practiced law in Wisconsin and in Washington DC, served as Counsel to Senator Paul Laxalt, (Rep. Nevada) and was Minority Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He serves on numerous non-profit and corporate boards, and is Chairman of the Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. His writings have been published in many magazines and periodicals, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, National Review, Policy Review, The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, www.Breitbart.com among others.

He is the author of Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism., a history of the conservative movement from 1945 to the present, published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster. He attended Beloit College and the University of Wisconsin Law School, and lives in Alexandria and Rappahannock County, Virginia. He has four grown children.

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