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Trial Delayed For Trio Indicted In Drug RingThe motion tor continuance of the case, granted by .Judge Roettger, means the trial date will be pushed back ‘‘at least a couple of months.’* possibly in early 1984, Frederick said. According to the grand jury indictment, on or about Aug.by Ingrid KreisThree Destin men indicted in connection with an international drug-smuggling operation known as “Operation Screamer won a temporary reprieve in federal court last week which should push the defendants' trial date to early 1984.Attorneys for Richard A. Rosen, a Destin charter boat captain, Robert E. Rew, a local businessman, and David Benton Holmes, an antique curator, originally were scheduled to begin trial proceedings Oct. 6 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale beforeJudge Norman C. Roettger.A U.S. grand jury charged in a seven-count indictment thatthe three men attempted to import several thousand pounds of marijuana from Jamaica into Fort Lauderdale International Airport from “on or about Aug. 24. 1981, until about Nov. 18, 1981.Destin attorney Mark Frederick, representing Holmes, said a flurry of motions were filed in U.S. District Court last Thursday.We filed a motion to dismiss the indictment in behalf of all three defendants because of the delay in bringing the case totrial, Frederick said Monday.Since the indictment was handed down, the attorney said, one of the six men named in the document has died and anotheris a fugitive not believed to be in the United States.Also. Frederick said, marijuana seized by undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents since has been destroyed, leaving no physical evidence to Ik* brought to trial.“The marijuana was never chemically analyzed, Frederick said. All (prosecutors) can introduce is testimony from DEA field agents.Judge Roettger denied the motion to dismiss the indictment, but took under advisement a motion to prohibit DEA agents from testifying that the seized substance “looked and smelled like marijuana, according to Frederick.The federal judge accepted for further study a motion which would prevent co-defendant Edward Carroll Savage from testifying against the other five defendants in the case.The motion to suppress Savage's testimony, Frederick said, was filed “because he is not present and wouldn't be in a position to cross-examine.The role of Savage, a fugitive from law enforcement officials.could only be presented circumstantially through comments federal agents testified were told to them, Frederick said.The local attorney said a 12-member jury had not been selected prior to the introduction of the motions Thursday.24. 1981, Edward Savage met with undercover DEA agents in Pembroke Pines, FL to discuss plans to import approximately 1,600 pounds of marijuana into the country.Three days later, records state, Savage, David Holmes. Richard Rosen (also known as “Al) and Robert Rew met at the Fort Lauderdale airport to inspect a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza aircraft.On Sept. 1. 1981, Rew. Rosen and Savage met undercover DEA officials to inspect priamry and secondary landing sites “to be used to import marijuana into the United Staes.Savage. Rew and a defendant by the name of Maurice Riley W estmoreland crashlanded in the craft near Vero Beach on Oct* 19 of that year, the grand jury indictment states.About Sept. 2, 1981, Savage, Holmes, Rosen, Rew, Westmoreland and James Dewitt Webster each “aided and abetted by the other, did knowingly and intentionally attempt to import...a quanity of marijuana into the country.
Newspaper Details
Destin Log
Destin, Florida, US
Wed, Oct 12, 1983
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Rutherford B.
OH, USA 16 Dec 2022
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