Case #53 - The People vs Luis Nunez (retrial)
Sometime in the mid to late 90's, I started writing these stories. I wrote a story about Luis Nunez in, mmmmm, probably the late 1990's. That story was titled The People vs Luis Nunez (If it’s not being pulled by a 40 mule team, hook it) I emailed it to all of my friends, including Luis. A few years later, when Todd Rogers was the station captain, I emailed it and about 200 other stories, to the entire station. Uhhh, I kinda got in trouble over that. Not much though, because Todd spoke up on my behalf to the chief's. When I retired in 2016, I opened a Facebook account and posted the story on there. In late 2017, I started this blog and it was one of my first stories (Case #6 in fact). I have seen and spoken with Luis many times since this story first appeared, including several times in the last two years for lunch. Luis has provided me information to write about. One thing he has never done in the twenty, or so years, since this story first appeared was say,
"Hey Brother. You know that borax story? You got it wrong."
So imagine my surprise when, on October 7th, 2018, Luis texted me to say, I got the story wrong. When I didn't call him back right away, he called me. Then he called me the next day. I finally called him back.
I would recommend reading Case #6 on my blog to read the original version, before reading the retrial. If you don't want to do that, here are the highlights.
Back in the mid 80's two deputies stopped two Mexicans and found a a large package (about a kilo) of a white powdery substance. Nobody knew what it was. Luis showed up, snorted in derision and declared it to be borax. When asked how he knew it was borax, he said,
“Last week I stopped a Mexican driving down this very street, at about this time. I searched his car and, inside a door panel, I found that very same type of substance. It was wrapped in clear plastic and taped shut, just like that package you have there. When I asked the driver what it was, he told me it was borax.”
This is Luis' NEW version of events. It is in three, count 'em, THU-REE parts
Part 1
In about February 1988, Luis was working overtime. He was working with a trainee named Dave Blitz on the PM shift (2 P.M. to 10 P.M.). They had just started the shift and left the station. They were working 169, the Torrance Strip car. They went north on Avalon Boulevard, west on 213th, north on Main Street and west on Torrance Boulevard. They passed under the 110 Freeway and entered their patrol area. As they were approaching Vermont Avenue, they passed a gas station on their left. Luis' peripheral vision caught sight of a 280Z with two guys standing outside of it talking as they gassed up the car. This caught his attention for three major reasons and one minor reason.
Major Reason #1 - The 280Z was one of the three or four most stolen cars in our area at the time.
Minor Reason #1 - There were two Black guys standing outside of it. The reason this was a minor factor was that there were no Black families living in this area. On the other hand, they were right next to a freeway, so they could have easily gotten off the freeway to get gas, or they could have been going, or coming from a friend's house. Which brings us to...
Major Reason #2 - Both men interrupted their conversation upon spotting the patrol car and their eyes went wide. They zeroed in on the black and white and tracked it, not so subtly, by turning their heads about 180 degrees as the car slowed for the red light at Vermont. Cops refer to that as, "the felony stare".
Major Reason #3 - The 280Z did not have a front plate. This is a minor vehicle code violation, but when combined with the type of car it was missing from and the felony stare, it bumped the interest factor up considerably.
Luis being as experienced as he was, with a full two years, or so, on patrol under his belt, pretended not to notice anything and just kept staring straight ahead. As they stopped for the red light, he advised Blitz that they were going to,
"... jam the Z in the gas station, as soon as the light turns green".
The less experienced trainee, who had no idea that anything even slightly suspicious was going on, or that there was even a gas station 3 lanes away from them, turned to look around for the car... and the gas station.
As Deputy Blitz' eyes fell on the car, he lifted his eyebrows and head in an, "Ahhhhh, I see what you're talking about", kind of way. In poker, this is sometimes referred to as, "a tell". It "told" the men by the Z that it was time to leave. They hopped in their car and burnt rubber out of the gas station, blowing through the red light at New Hampshire, in the process.
Luis shot Blitz a dirty look, as he made an immediate u-turn, and took off after the 280Z. Both cars passed east under the 110 freeway and were at Figueroa Street, by the time Luis had closed the distance and activated his lights and siren. The Z turned north on Figueroa street and, to Luis' surprise, yielded to the siren.
Blitz moved up on the passenger side first, to cover the occupants of the car, then Luis moved up on the driver's side. Luis saw gang tattoos of the Rollin 30's Crips on the driver's hand and the side of the passenger's neck. He had the driver exit the Z and, using the, "hands behind the back, fingers interlocked technique", patted him down for weapons. The driver was wearing a thick jacket. As he ran his hand down the driver's left rib cage, he felt something snap and saw a little strap of leather, with a snap on it, fall to the ground. Luis' two years of patrol experience really showed as he failed to recognize what that leather strap might be. He sat the driver on the curb, went back to the patrol car and requested backup on the car radio.
During this period of time, we only had car radios. Also, on the L.A. Sheriff's Department, there were two ways to ask for help. The least emergent way was to request, "backup". That was for routine stuff. If you needed help now, because you were in a fight, or shooting, then you requested, "assistance". Also, during this period of time, while a, "backup request", on our department was officially, non-emergent, deputies requested it so infrequently, that, unofficially, it was treated as emergent, while "assistance requests" were treated as if the Soviets had just invaded. As a result, Luis' backup request resulted in multiple units arriving over a course of about 3 minutes.
The deputies on scene, included some of the station's senior deputies. Deputies who had been at the station for 5, or more years. They included, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Lewis, and a few others, including Steve Bidd (okay, so maybe that guy was a newbie).
The passenger exited the car and was patted down for weapons, then sat down alongside his buddy. One deputy had the driver remove his heavy jacket, to verify he was unarmed. He was wearing an empty shoulder holster. Accusatory raised eyebrows were aimed in Luis' direction, for missing the shoulder rig during the pat down. As would be recognized as his modus operandi in coming years, Luis looked to make sure Blits wasn't looking, then subtly pointed the finger at Blitz, while mouthing the words,
"I'll talk to the new kid."
The deputies checked the car to see if he had hidden his identification and to look for the gun that fit the holster. They found a Colt M1911A1 pistol under the driver's seat. None of them could fit their hands under the seat to reach it. One of them drew his side handle baton and pushed the pistol out from its hiding place. An AFS check showed the gun was stolen. Meanwhile a DMV check showed that the driver did have a license, but it was suspended. The driver was arrested for Driving on a Suspended License, Possession of a Concealed Firearm in a Vehicle, Possession of a Loaded Firearm in a Vehicle and Possession of a Stolen Firearm. The deputies popped the rear hatch to do an inventory check, prior to towing the vehicle.
One of the deputies saw the speaker grill was loose, checked it and it came off. Inside was a package about the size of a shoe box, which he removed and brought to Luis. The box was opened to reveal a block shaped, kilo sized, clear, plastic packaging that weighed about a kilo and was taped shut. The plastic contained a very white, powdery, crystalline substance with chunks of the same material mixed throughout. Luis looked at it disinterestedly,
"What's this?", he asked.
"I don't know."
The other deputies started to gather to examine the package and it's pure, very white, crystalline substance. When they rubbed it through the clear plastic, it left a white crystalline smear on the plastic.
Of the several, experienced deputies there, only one came up with an explanation as to what the white substance was,
"Gypsum."
"What?"
"It's fuckin' gypsum. Look how white it is."
"What the fuck is gypsum?"
"It's used in construction. These fuckin' guys are probably trying to pass it off as cocaine to some chump."
Luis shrugged, made a, "pfffft", sound and tossed the kilo sized package into the rear compartment of the Z. He had a felony gun right out the gate. He was ecstatic. He told the passenger he was free to go. As Luis and Blitz drove off with their prisoner, the suspect yelled desperately out the window to his pal,
"GET THE CAR OUT OF IMPOUND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"
Luis's two years in a patrol car showed again as he thought,
"Nnnnnn, whatever".
Now to be fair to the deputies in this story, even though they were all familiar with cocaine, both powder cocaine and crack cocaine, none of them had ever seen cocaine that was this white before. It was white like sugar. The cocaine they had experience with had been stepped on so many times it was a duller shade of white. And nobody at the station had found more than a few ounces of cocaine on a traffic stop. But what's mind boggling, to me, about Part 1 of this story is,
- Deputies of this time period were renowned for being extremely proactive when it came to police work. They would park their cars, climb a 10 foot, chain linked, barbed wire topped fence, walk a quarter mile through an oil field, climb a six foot block wall, walk 40 or 50 feet along that 4 inch wide block wall, in the dark, and drop down into some bushes on the street side of the houses of a cul de sac, just to get the drop on guys selling dope in the cul de sac. (That's an actual description of the route we often took to get those guys.)
- The packaging and substance were recognized as being, at least, something being used to pass as cocaine and they still let it go.
- The certainty, or uncertainty, of a particular substance actually being an illegal drug was never a deterrent. In fact, a popular saying of the day was used by Deputy Jon Brick at the end of part 2 of this story.
Part 2
About a week later, Luis was working his usual car on the early Mornings shift (Graveyards). He got a call on Charlie (the car to car frequency, which would become L-Tac a few years later). The call was from one of the new kids on the block, Deputy Jon Brick, who was working unit 166F (the same Jon Brick who would go on to be involved in Case #28). Jon was in a one man car. It was Jon's final week on training and he did not want to screw up.
"Deputy Nunez, I have something, I'd like you to take a look at. Can you meet me at Del Amo and Santa Fe?"
To wordlessly emphasize that this youngster better not be wasting his time with foolishness, to prepare for his response, Luis slowly inhaled deeply before replying. He then exhaled as loudly as possibleand putting as much annoyance into his voice as possible, while answering,
"Shee-ore, Kiiiid. I'll beeee there in fiiiive."
When Luis arrived, Jon was waiting by the hood of his car and had a Mexican guy in his backseat. Luis walked up, as a couple of other units rolled in to the back up request.
"What do ya got Kid?", Luis asked tiredly, even though it was the beginning of shift.
"I don't know. I haven't seen anything exactly like it before. What do you think this is?", Jon asked, as he held out a hand. Luis raised a doubtful eyebrow as he momentarily stared into Jon's face, then he reluctantly looked down into Jon's outstretched hand, with a bored expression and snatched the object away.
It was a round, baseball sized, piece of clear plastic. Wrapped inside of the plastic was the same excruciatingly, white substance that had been found in the 280Z a week prior. Luis snorted his derision,
"PFFFT! I know what this is! It's gypsum."
"It's what?"
"Gyp-sum?", he arrogantly repeated, as if only a moron wouldn't know what gypsum is.
"I never heard of it."
Luis, after an exaggerated exhalation of breath, explained,
"Gypsum is a substance used in construction. I jammed some guy with a gun last week that had a kilo of the stuff. For some reason the idiots around here are running around, trying to pass it off as cooo-caaaine. Pffft!"
Luis tossed the object disdainfully back to Jon.
One of the other deputies, who had been watching this exchange slowly walked past Jon's back, muttering,
"I'd hook the fucker if I was you.", under his breath, as he passed behind Jon's head.
Jon, not wanting to offend Luis, but silently deciding to ignore his advice, looked down at his bindle of, "gypsum", pursed his lips for a second, then shrugged and said, matter-of-factly,
"Ya knoooow, there's slim pickin's tonight and I'm not a chemist. Soooo, I'm taking his ass for Possession and DUI. Fuck it."
Luis chuckled in amusement,
"Go ahead, Kid. A stats a stat."
Part 3
About a week later, Luis was working the PM shift again, on overtime. At the start of shift, he was approached by Jon Brick, who was now off training. Jon asked,
"Hey, Deputy Nunez."
"Yeah, Kid?"
"You remember that bindle from Santa Fe and Carson last week?"
"Ha, ha ha. The gypsum? Yeah, I remember. What about it? Narco chew your ass out for wasting their time on bunk cocaaaaaine?"
"No. In fact, they told me the test result showed it was 100% pure cocaine."
Luis' jaw dropped,
"But... but... I threw a kilo of that stuff away! I gave it BACK TO THE SUSPECTS!",
"I know. See ya.", Jon said, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face. As Jon walked away, softly singing Eric Clapton's, "Cocaine", Luis stared in disbelief at his retreating back, while he ran the scene of himself tossing a kilo of 100% pure Columbian flake back into a suspect's car, while simultaneously pulling a shoulder muscle trying to pat himself on the back for finding a stolen gun.
It was finally the end of shift. The kilo of pure cocaine he had let go had been running through his mind all shift long. He was looking for one last hook as he headed into the station. He saw two Mexican males driving a Hyundai. The Hyundai caught his attention, partly because it had a cracked windshield, but mostly because it was one of the other four most popular cars to steal at the time. Nobody really knew why, because, in 1988, they were junkers. In addition, the car had no plates, which upped the possibility of it being stolen. He pulled in behind the car, lit it up and it pulled over on Avalon Boulevard, just south of Carson Street. He walked up to the driver's window and asked for the driver's license and registration.
"No hablo Ingles.", replied the driver, innocently.
That line had probably worked a thousand times before for this guy, but it wasn't going to work with Luis. Luis routinely spoke Spanish at home. In Spanish, the driver said he didn't have a driver's license, wallet, or identification. Luis got the driver out, patted him down and searched him for a license, or identification. He didn't find either. What he did find was a ticket stub for the Julio Cesar Chavez fight that had occurred down in Tijuana, Mexico the night before (March 5, 1988), a gun, wads and wads of cash and several bindles of what, the day before, he would have written off as gypsum. He hooked the driver, stuck him in his backseat and requested backup. Leroy Janulewicz, aka Red Dog Leader, arrived. They got the passenger out, found another gun, more bundles of cash and more bindles of pure cocaine. The passenger was hooked. They ran the car, it was reported stolen out of San Diego, earlier that day (San Diego is the California city, just north of Tijuana, Mexico).
Leroy started the paperwork for a tow and searched the car as part of the tow. He found a taped up box about half the size of a shoe box. He brought it to Luis. One corner was torn open. Luis saw the pure white substance inside and a big grin stole across his face. Reading his mind, the faaaaar more senior Red Dog Leader advised him,
"Take it easy, Luis. That's not dope."
"No my Brother. THAT is my redemption!"
When Luis went to run the arrest by the Watch Sgt, Sgt Mario Barron, Sgt Barron was in Dispatch sitting and talking to the Watch Deputy, Deputy Charlie Smith and the Dispatcher, Deputy Sal Saiz. Sgt Barron motioned for Luis to come into Dispatch and run the arrest by him there. Luis ran the arrest by as, the legendary Charlie Smith and Sal Saiz, silently spun around in their chairs to listen and watch him impassively. This was an era when the Dispatcher and the Watch Deputy were a station's "power couple". They were generlly two of the station's most experienced deputies. When he was finished running the arrest by the Watch Sgt (and by station tradition, the Watch Deputy and the Dispatcher), Sgt Barron motioned for him to set the evidence on the Dispatch radio housing for an examination. Luis did as instructed. Sgt Barron stood up and took a step closer to the radio to examine the evidence, as the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher spun their chairs slightly to also examine the evidence that had been placed between them.
Watch Sgt, Watch Deputy and Dispatcher stared at the evidence in silence for a few seconds. The Watch Deputy and Dispatcher exchanged a brief look with each other and the Watch Sgt, then shook their heads slightly,before turning to face their respective screens in silent disapproval. Luis knew he had been dismissed by the station's "power couple". Sgt Barron nodded for Luis to gather his evidence, laid a patronizing hand on his shoulder, and guided him out of the Dispatch office. Sgt Barron, stole a quick glance back toward the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher, then quietly advised Luis, presumably, so as not to embarrass Luis in front of the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher,
"Look, What you got here? It's not cocaine. Don't worry, I'll sign the arrest off. You still got them for the guns and stolen car. Narco can drop the dope charge when the test comes back negative".
Verdict – Luis Nunez, this Court originally found you Guilty of Narcolapsy, that is to say, being asleep in the presence of narcotics in the original case. I'm really not seeing anything in this case to change that. However you have thrown Charlie Smith, Sal Saiz, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Lewis, Steve Bidd, Leroy Janulewicz and Mario Barron under the bus too. Sooo, thanks for that, those guys are now found Guilty of Narcolapsy too. Oh, you're also found Guilty of Littering. That's a lot of names you dropped, Pal. We'll leave Blitz out of this. After all, he was just a trainee and everybody knows trainees are stupid.
Sentence – Wow, sentencing is gonna be tough. Let's see you were originally sentenced to join the California Narcotics Officers' Association and attend all available classes. and to instruct every deputy you supervise, that cocaine is smuggled in hidden compartments through the city and borax is pulled by 40 mule teams through the desert. We'll scratch the stuff about mules and the desert, since I don't know, or care where gypsum comes from. You still have to join CNOA. Now let's see, you found a total of, we'll call it 3 kilos of cocaine, to make it simple. You let 2 kilos go. So you only have to take 2/3 of the CNOA classes. Since you're retired, you don't have any deputies to supervise, so we'll scratch that too. That seems fair to me. Larry Lewis, Jeffrey Hunter, Steve Bidd, Charlie Smith, Sal Saiz, Leroy Janulewicz and Mario Barron? Same thing.
As far as the Littering charge goes... mmmm... I'll just toss that. After all, where would I get these stories, if I started punishing my informants? And since you are probably out, here's a roll of dimes.
Oh Yeah! Before I forget, you should know, that at your request, I contacted Jon Brick, because you said he would verify the story. He did. With one exception. One glaringly, WHITE exception. He says you identified the substance, not as gypsum, but as BORAX! He distinctly recalls you saying,
"The suspect told me it was borax. He uses it to wash his clothes."
Nice try though, Lou.
Sometime in the mid to late 90's, I started writing these stories. I wrote a story about Luis Nunez in, mmmmm, probably the late 1990's. That story was titled The People vs Luis Nunez (If it’s not being pulled by a 40 mule team, hook it) I emailed it to all of my friends, including Luis. A few years later, when Todd Rogers was the station captain, I emailed it and about 200 other stories, to the entire station. Uhhh, I kinda got in trouble over that. Not much though, because Todd spoke up on my behalf to the chief's. When I retired in 2016, I opened a Facebook account and posted the story on there. In late 2017, I started this blog and it was one of my first stories (Case #6 in fact). I have seen and spoken with Luis many times since this story first appeared, including several times in the last two years for lunch. Luis has provided me information to write about. One thing he has never done in the twenty, or so years, since this story first appeared was say,
"Hey Brother. You know that borax story? You got it wrong."
So imagine my surprise when, on October 7th, 2018, Luis texted me to say, I got the story wrong. When I didn't call him back right away, he called me. Then he called me the next day. I finally called him back.
I would recommend reading Case #6 on my blog to read the original version, before reading the retrial. If you don't want to do that, here are the highlights.
Back in the mid 80's two deputies stopped two Mexicans and found a a large package (about a kilo) of a white powdery substance. Nobody knew what it was. Luis showed up, snorted in derision and declared it to be borax. When asked how he knew it was borax, he said,
“Last week I stopped a Mexican driving down this very street, at about this time. I searched his car and, inside a door panel, I found that very same type of substance. It was wrapped in clear plastic and taped shut, just like that package you have there. When I asked the driver what it was, he told me it was borax.”
This is Luis' NEW version of events. It is in three, count 'em, THU-REE parts
Part 1
In about February 1988, Luis was working overtime. He was working with a trainee named Dave Blitz on the PM shift (2 P.M. to 10 P.M.). They had just started the shift and left the station. They were working 169, the Torrance Strip car. They went north on Avalon Boulevard, west on 213th, north on Main Street and west on Torrance Boulevard. They passed under the 110 Freeway and entered their patrol area. As they were approaching Vermont Avenue, they passed a gas station on their left. Luis' peripheral vision caught sight of a 280Z with two guys standing outside of it talking as they gassed up the car. This caught his attention for three major reasons and one minor reason.
Major Reason #1 - The 280Z was one of the three or four most stolen cars in our area at the time.
Minor Reason #1 - There were two Black guys standing outside of it. The reason this was a minor factor was that there were no Black families living in this area. On the other hand, they were right next to a freeway, so they could have easily gotten off the freeway to get gas, or they could have been going, or coming from a friend's house. Which brings us to...
Major Reason #2 - Both men interrupted their conversation upon spotting the patrol car and their eyes went wide. They zeroed in on the black and white and tracked it, not so subtly, by turning their heads about 180 degrees as the car slowed for the red light at Vermont. Cops refer to that as, "the felony stare".
Major Reason #3 - The 280Z did not have a front plate. This is a minor vehicle code violation, but when combined with the type of car it was missing from and the felony stare, it bumped the interest factor up considerably.
Luis being as experienced as he was, with a full two years, or so, on patrol under his belt, pretended not to notice anything and just kept staring straight ahead. As they stopped for the red light, he advised Blitz that they were going to,
"... jam the Z in the gas station, as soon as the light turns green".
The less experienced trainee, who had no idea that anything even slightly suspicious was going on, or that there was even a gas station 3 lanes away from them, turned to look around for the car... and the gas station.
As Deputy Blitz' eyes fell on the car, he lifted his eyebrows and head in an, "Ahhhhh, I see what you're talking about", kind of way. In poker, this is sometimes referred to as, "a tell". It "told" the men by the Z that it was time to leave. They hopped in their car and burnt rubber out of the gas station, blowing through the red light at New Hampshire, in the process.
Luis shot Blitz a dirty look, as he made an immediate u-turn, and took off after the 280Z. Both cars passed east under the 110 freeway and were at Figueroa Street, by the time Luis had closed the distance and activated his lights and siren. The Z turned north on Figueroa street and, to Luis' surprise, yielded to the siren.
Blitz moved up on the passenger side first, to cover the occupants of the car, then Luis moved up on the driver's side. Luis saw gang tattoos of the Rollin 30's Crips on the driver's hand and the side of the passenger's neck. He had the driver exit the Z and, using the, "hands behind the back, fingers interlocked technique", patted him down for weapons. The driver was wearing a thick jacket. As he ran his hand down the driver's left rib cage, he felt something snap and saw a little strap of leather, with a snap on it, fall to the ground. Luis' two years of patrol experience really showed as he failed to recognize what that leather strap might be. He sat the driver on the curb, went back to the patrol car and requested backup on the car radio.
During this period of time, we only had car radios. Also, on the L.A. Sheriff's Department, there were two ways to ask for help. The least emergent way was to request, "backup". That was for routine stuff. If you needed help now, because you were in a fight, or shooting, then you requested, "assistance". Also, during this period of time, while a, "backup request", on our department was officially, non-emergent, deputies requested it so infrequently, that, unofficially, it was treated as emergent, while "assistance requests" were treated as if the Soviets had just invaded. As a result, Luis' backup request resulted in multiple units arriving over a course of about 3 minutes.
The deputies on scene, included some of the station's senior deputies. Deputies who had been at the station for 5, or more years. They included, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Lewis, and a few others, including Steve Bidd (okay, so maybe that guy was a newbie).
The passenger exited the car and was patted down for weapons, then sat down alongside his buddy. One deputy had the driver remove his heavy jacket, to verify he was unarmed. He was wearing an empty shoulder holster. Accusatory raised eyebrows were aimed in Luis' direction, for missing the shoulder rig during the pat down. As would be recognized as his modus operandi in coming years, Luis looked to make sure Blits wasn't looking, then subtly pointed the finger at Blitz, while mouthing the words,
"I'll talk to the new kid."
The deputies checked the car to see if he had hidden his identification and to look for the gun that fit the holster. They found a Colt M1911A1 pistol under the driver's seat. None of them could fit their hands under the seat to reach it. One of them drew his side handle baton and pushed the pistol out from its hiding place. An AFS check showed the gun was stolen. Meanwhile a DMV check showed that the driver did have a license, but it was suspended. The driver was arrested for Driving on a Suspended License, Possession of a Concealed Firearm in a Vehicle, Possession of a Loaded Firearm in a Vehicle and Possession of a Stolen Firearm. The deputies popped the rear hatch to do an inventory check, prior to towing the vehicle.
One of the deputies saw the speaker grill was loose, checked it and it came off. Inside was a package about the size of a shoe box, which he removed and brought to Luis. The box was opened to reveal a block shaped, kilo sized, clear, plastic packaging that weighed about a kilo and was taped shut. The plastic contained a very white, powdery, crystalline substance with chunks of the same material mixed throughout. Luis looked at it disinterestedly,
"What's this?", he asked.
"I don't know."
The other deputies started to gather to examine the package and it's pure, very white, crystalline substance. When they rubbed it through the clear plastic, it left a white crystalline smear on the plastic.
Of the several, experienced deputies there, only one came up with an explanation as to what the white substance was,
"Gypsum."
"What?"
"It's fuckin' gypsum. Look how white it is."
"What the fuck is gypsum?"
"It's used in construction. These fuckin' guys are probably trying to pass it off as cocaine to some chump."
Luis shrugged, made a, "pfffft", sound and tossed the kilo sized package into the rear compartment of the Z. He had a felony gun right out the gate. He was ecstatic. He told the passenger he was free to go. As Luis and Blitz drove off with their prisoner, the suspect yelled desperately out the window to his pal,
"GET THE CAR OUT OF IMPOUND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"
Luis's two years in a patrol car showed again as he thought,
"Nnnnnn, whatever".
Now to be fair to the deputies in this story, even though they were all familiar with cocaine, both powder cocaine and crack cocaine, none of them had ever seen cocaine that was this white before. It was white like sugar. The cocaine they had experience with had been stepped on so many times it was a duller shade of white. And nobody at the station had found more than a few ounces of cocaine on a traffic stop. But what's mind boggling, to me, about Part 1 of this story is,
- Deputies of this time period were renowned for being extremely proactive when it came to police work. They would park their cars, climb a 10 foot, chain linked, barbed wire topped fence, walk a quarter mile through an oil field, climb a six foot block wall, walk 40 or 50 feet along that 4 inch wide block wall, in the dark, and drop down into some bushes on the street side of the houses of a cul de sac, just to get the drop on guys selling dope in the cul de sac. (That's an actual description of the route we often took to get those guys.)
- The packaging and substance were recognized as being, at least, something being used to pass as cocaine and they still let it go.
- The certainty, or uncertainty, of a particular substance actually being an illegal drug was never a deterrent. In fact, a popular saying of the day was used by Deputy Jon Brick at the end of part 2 of this story.
Part 2
About a week later, Luis was working his usual car on the early Mornings shift (Graveyards). He got a call on Charlie (the car to car frequency, which would become L-Tac a few years later). The call was from one of the new kids on the block, Deputy Jon Brick, who was working unit 166F (the same Jon Brick who would go on to be involved in Case #28). Jon was in a one man car. It was Jon's final week on training and he did not want to screw up.
"Deputy Nunez, I have something, I'd like you to take a look at. Can you meet me at Del Amo and Santa Fe?"
To wordlessly emphasize that this youngster better not be wasting his time with foolishness, to prepare for his response, Luis slowly inhaled deeply before replying. He then exhaled as loudly as possibleand putting as much annoyance into his voice as possible, while answering,
"Shee-ore, Kiiiid. I'll beeee there in fiiiive."
When Luis arrived, Jon was waiting by the hood of his car and had a Mexican guy in his backseat. Luis walked up, as a couple of other units rolled in to the back up request.
"What do ya got Kid?", Luis asked tiredly, even though it was the beginning of shift.
"I don't know. I haven't seen anything exactly like it before. What do you think this is?", Jon asked, as he held out a hand. Luis raised a doubtful eyebrow as he momentarily stared into Jon's face, then he reluctantly looked down into Jon's outstretched hand, with a bored expression and snatched the object away.
It was a round, baseball sized, piece of clear plastic. Wrapped inside of the plastic was the same excruciatingly, white substance that had been found in the 280Z a week prior. Luis snorted his derision,
"PFFFT! I know what this is! It's gypsum."
"It's what?"
"Gyp-sum?", he arrogantly repeated, as if only a moron wouldn't know what gypsum is.
"I never heard of it."
Luis, after an exaggerated exhalation of breath, explained,
"Gypsum is a substance used in construction. I jammed some guy with a gun last week that had a kilo of the stuff. For some reason the idiots around here are running around, trying to pass it off as cooo-caaaine. Pffft!"
Luis tossed the object disdainfully back to Jon.
One of the other deputies, who had been watching this exchange slowly walked past Jon's back, muttering,
"I'd hook the fucker if I was you.", under his breath, as he passed behind Jon's head.
Jon, not wanting to offend Luis, but silently deciding to ignore his advice, looked down at his bindle of, "gypsum", pursed his lips for a second, then shrugged and said, matter-of-factly,
"Ya knoooow, there's slim pickin's tonight and I'm not a chemist. Soooo, I'm taking his ass for Possession and DUI. Fuck it."
Luis chuckled in amusement,
"Go ahead, Kid. A stats a stat."
Part 3
About a week later, Luis was working the PM shift again, on overtime. At the start of shift, he was approached by Jon Brick, who was now off training. Jon asked,
"Hey, Deputy Nunez."
"Yeah, Kid?"
"You remember that bindle from Santa Fe and Carson last week?"
"Ha, ha ha. The gypsum? Yeah, I remember. What about it? Narco chew your ass out for wasting their time on bunk cocaaaaaine?"
"No. In fact, they told me the test result showed it was 100% pure cocaine."
Luis' jaw dropped,
"But... but... I threw a kilo of that stuff away! I gave it BACK TO THE SUSPECTS!",
"I know. See ya.", Jon said, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face. As Jon walked away, softly singing Eric Clapton's, "Cocaine", Luis stared in disbelief at his retreating back, while he ran the scene of himself tossing a kilo of 100% pure Columbian flake back into a suspect's car, while simultaneously pulling a shoulder muscle trying to pat himself on the back for finding a stolen gun.
It was finally the end of shift. The kilo of pure cocaine he had let go had been running through his mind all shift long. He was looking for one last hook as he headed into the station. He saw two Mexican males driving a Hyundai. The Hyundai caught his attention, partly because it had a cracked windshield, but mostly because it was one of the other four most popular cars to steal at the time. Nobody really knew why, because, in 1988, they were junkers. In addition, the car had no plates, which upped the possibility of it being stolen. He pulled in behind the car, lit it up and it pulled over on Avalon Boulevard, just south of Carson Street. He walked up to the driver's window and asked for the driver's license and registration.
"No hablo Ingles.", replied the driver, innocently.
That line had probably worked a thousand times before for this guy, but it wasn't going to work with Luis. Luis routinely spoke Spanish at home. In Spanish, the driver said he didn't have a driver's license, wallet, or identification. Luis got the driver out, patted him down and searched him for a license, or identification. He didn't find either. What he did find was a ticket stub for the Julio Cesar Chavez fight that had occurred down in Tijuana, Mexico the night before (March 5, 1988), a gun, wads and wads of cash and several bindles of what, the day before, he would have written off as gypsum. He hooked the driver, stuck him in his backseat and requested backup. Leroy Janulewicz, aka Red Dog Leader, arrived. They got the passenger out, found another gun, more bundles of cash and more bindles of pure cocaine. The passenger was hooked. They ran the car, it was reported stolen out of San Diego, earlier that day (San Diego is the California city, just north of Tijuana, Mexico).
Leroy started the paperwork for a tow and searched the car as part of the tow. He found a taped up box about half the size of a shoe box. He brought it to Luis. One corner was torn open. Luis saw the pure white substance inside and a big grin stole across his face. Reading his mind, the faaaaar more senior Red Dog Leader advised him,
"Take it easy, Luis. That's not dope."
"No my Brother. THAT is my redemption!"
When Luis went to run the arrest by the Watch Sgt, Sgt Mario Barron, Sgt Barron was in Dispatch sitting and talking to the Watch Deputy, Deputy Charlie Smith and the Dispatcher, Deputy Sal Saiz. Sgt Barron motioned for Luis to come into Dispatch and run the arrest by him there. Luis ran the arrest by as, the legendary Charlie Smith and Sal Saiz, silently spun around in their chairs to listen and watch him impassively. This was an era when the Dispatcher and the Watch Deputy were a station's "power couple". They were generlly two of the station's most experienced deputies. When he was finished running the arrest by the Watch Sgt (and by station tradition, the Watch Deputy and the Dispatcher), Sgt Barron motioned for him to set the evidence on the Dispatch radio housing for an examination. Luis did as instructed. Sgt Barron stood up and took a step closer to the radio to examine the evidence, as the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher spun their chairs slightly to also examine the evidence that had been placed between them.
Watch Sgt, Watch Deputy and Dispatcher stared at the evidence in silence for a few seconds. The Watch Deputy and Dispatcher exchanged a brief look with each other and the Watch Sgt, then shook their heads slightly,before turning to face their respective screens in silent disapproval. Luis knew he had been dismissed by the station's "power couple". Sgt Barron nodded for Luis to gather his evidence, laid a patronizing hand on his shoulder, and guided him out of the Dispatch office. Sgt Barron, stole a quick glance back toward the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher, then quietly advised Luis, presumably, so as not to embarrass Luis in front of the Watch Deputy and Dispatcher,
"Look, What you got here? It's not cocaine. Don't worry, I'll sign the arrest off. You still got them for the guns and stolen car. Narco can drop the dope charge when the test comes back negative".
Verdict – Luis Nunez, this Court originally found you Guilty of Narcolapsy, that is to say, being asleep in the presence of narcotics in the original case. I'm really not seeing anything in this case to change that. However you have thrown Charlie Smith, Sal Saiz, Jeffrey Hunter, Larry Lewis, Steve Bidd, Leroy Janulewicz and Mario Barron under the bus too. Sooo, thanks for that, those guys are now found Guilty of Narcolapsy too. Oh, you're also found Guilty of Littering. That's a lot of names you dropped, Pal. We'll leave Blitz out of this. After all, he was just a trainee and everybody knows trainees are stupid.
Sentence – Wow, sentencing is gonna be tough. Let's see you were originally sentenced to join the California Narcotics Officers' Association and attend all available classes. and to instruct every deputy you supervise, that cocaine is smuggled in hidden compartments through the city and borax is pulled by 40 mule teams through the desert. We'll scratch the stuff about mules and the desert, since I don't know, or care where gypsum comes from. You still have to join CNOA. Now let's see, you found a total of, we'll call it 3 kilos of cocaine, to make it simple. You let 2 kilos go. So you only have to take 2/3 of the CNOA classes. Since you're retired, you don't have any deputies to supervise, so we'll scratch that too. That seems fair to me. Larry Lewis, Jeffrey Hunter, Steve Bidd, Charlie Smith, Sal Saiz, Leroy Janulewicz and Mario Barron? Same thing.
As far as the Littering charge goes... mmmm... I'll just toss that. After all, where would I get these stories, if I started punishing my informants? And since you are probably out, here's a roll of dimes.
Oh Yeah! Before I forget, you should know, that at your request, I contacted Jon Brick, because you said he would verify the story. He did. With one exception. One glaringly, WHITE exception. He says you identified the substance, not as gypsum, but as BORAX! He distinctly recalls you saying,
"The suspect told me it was borax. He uses it to wash his clothes."
Nice try though, Lou.
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