Houston Chronicle
August 17, 1988
Wade pose as crooked cop told
Attorney tells jury ex-sheriff tried to trap drug dealers
by Richardson Stewart
Houston Chronicle
SHERMAN - The neighboring sheriff who launched the investigation that resulted in the federal indictment of Orange County Sheriff James Wade on drug Charges testified Tuesday that he didn't believe the first stories he heard about drug manufactures working for Wade.
But Hardin County Sheriff H. R. "Mike" Holzapfel told a jury that he notified state and federal investigators when he began to check out the stories told him by two men arrested with drug-making equipment last October.
The men told Holzapfel that they had been free to operate methamphetamine labs in Orange County when they paid money to Wade.
During opening arguments earlier in the day, Wade's attorney, Gary Richardson, said Wade was posing as a crooked cop to trap some big-time drug dealers.
"I wouldn't do it, Holzapfel said of the idea of a sheriff using such tactics.
He said that if he ever did pose as a crook, he would want to have federal and state prosecutors and judges sign a document that they knew what he was doing.
Richardson told the jury that he intends to present evidence that Wade did tell U. S. Attorney Bob Wortham about his plans to pretend to be working for drug dealers.
Holzapfel is the first of as many as 60 witnesses prosecutors said they may call to the witness stand today.
Wearing rubber gloves to protect himself from the pungent odor associated with speed lab equipment, Holzapfel held a semiautomatic riffle, an air pump and lab equipment that he and his officers seized in the raid of a drug lab in northern Hardin County last October.
He said one of the men arrested in the raid, Donnie Flowers, told him that he "could cook in Orange County and Sheriff Wade would let him for a fee," the sheriff said.
"I did not believe him," Holzapfel said.
He said that when he asked Flowers if he was ready to repeat his story to a federal grand jury, Flowers replied, "I haven't told you nothing."
James Vercher, another man arrested in the drug raid, told Holzapfel that the rifle, pump and lab equipment seized in the raid had been provided by Wade.
Holzapfel said that when he was able to check out Vercher's claims he notified a Texas Ranger and the FBI.
Among the items seized were a notebook that contained notations of money being paid to someone called the "boss," Holzapfel said, and a deposit slip for a bank account called the "James Wade special fund."
Richardson said in opening statements that the special fund was used to pay for an Explorer Scout group sponsored by the Sheriff's Department.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Paul Naman said in opening statement that FBI agents have checked out every aspect of drug dealer's stories about Wade working with them and that jurors will be shown testimony to back up those stories.
Richardson called the charges a carefully orchestrated attempt by people he called "big-time druggies" to get rid of a sheriff who had been elected in 1984 on a strong anti-drug campaign.
Wade has been in jail since June 1 and recently was removed from office pending the outcome of his trial. He lost bid for re-election in a Democratic runoff in April.
About a dozen Wade supporters sat through the opening day of testimony in the Grayson County Courthouse.
Among them were McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell, who had the same defense team as Wade when he was acquitted of federal racketeering charges two years ago.
Feazell, who was charged with taking bribes to dismiss cases, said he thinks the charges against him began when he criticized the Texas Rangers' handling of accused serial murder Henry Lee Lucas.
Wade's problems may have the same root, Feazell said.
Wade was fired from the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1983 after he refused to be transferred from Orange County to a Dallas-area driver's license bureau.
Wade claimed he was being persecuted fro criticizing what he called the department's traffic ticket quota. Department officials said Wade was being transferred because men were complaining that wade was soliciting sex at an Interstate 10 rest stop.
Wade filled an $18 million lawsuit against the department but dropped it after a mistrial.
"If I didn't believe this was a setup I wouldn't be here," Feazell said. "I have enough trouble of my own."
Wade appeared to be eager to have the trial proceed. When U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb asked him how he pleaded to each of the 10 counts against him, he answered "Not guilty, your honor," each time.
If found guilty of all charges, Wade faces up to 125 years in jail and more than $4 million in fines.
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