Beaumont Enterprise
August 24, 1988
Defense attacks Flower's testimony
By Margaret Toal
Staff writer
Sherman - A key prosecution witness in the James Wade drug trial testified Tuesday that he once lied to FBI agents, and that he had been a heavy user of drugs.
Donnie James Flowers, 27, was the only witness again Tuesday, the second day of his testimony. Defense attorney Gary Richardson of Tulsa, Okla., attacked Flowers' previous testimony.
Flowers is in a federal witness protection program. He said he and his wife and three children receive living expenses from the U. S. Marshal's Service and that he and his wife work.
Flowers is one of three people named as unindicted co-conspirators in a 10-count indictment against Wade, who was Orange County sheriff until July 11 when a state district judge removed him from office.
Flowers told Richardson he began using methamphetamine intravenously in 1986 while running a "meth" lab for Wade. The lab was moved from place to place in various houses and one mobile home in Orange county, he said.
Richardson asked him at different times when he had quit using drugs, and Flowers gave contradictory answers.
To one of Richardson's questions about the drug operation, Flowers replied, " I had no idea. I was on drugs at the time."
He said the drugs "make you forgetful. You get paranoid."
Flowers testified that he lied to two FBI agents on Jan. 14 when he was arrested after the personal recognizance bond that Wade arranged or him in Hardin County in October was revoked.
Flowers testified that he lied to two FBI agents on Jan. 14when he was arrested after the personal recognizance bond that Wade arranged for him in Hardin County in October was revoked.
He said he had seen law enforcement officers that night at his house in Vidor and he went to a nearby store to call Wade. Wade repeated the cover story they had agreed to tell authorities if they were caught, Flowers testified.
So, he said, following his arrest, his first statement to FBI agents was a lie.
He said he told the agents he worked for Wade as a confidential informant and would represent to drug dealers that Wade "was a corrupt sheriff and could be bought off."
Richardson has told the jury Wade was pretending to be crooked to catch drug dealers.
Flowers testified that about five to 10 minutes after his first statement to FBI agents, he told Special Agents Zack Shelton and Roger Humphrey the truth about the drug operation "because Zach and Roger came in with the facts I knew to be true."
He said one of those facts was their knowledge of a vacuum pump taken from the Orange County evidence room. The pump was later seized in the Hardin County drug raid.
Flowers is to continue testifying today. Richardson had indicated he will question Flowers about discrepancies in his testimony before a federal grand jury and his current trial testimony.
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