Beaumont Enterprise
August 30, 1988
Drug dealer: Wade wanted witness killed
by Margaret Toal
Staff Writer
SHERMAN - An admitted drug dealer testified Monday that James Wade asked him to kill a key witness in the FBI investigation of Wade.
Bobby Lee Rogers, 31, formerly of Vidor, testified that Wade in January "asked me if I would get Donnie (Flowers) out of jail and kill him."
Rogers and Flowers, 27, are two of three unindicted co-conspirators with Wade, who was indicted May 2 on 10 federal charges, including conspiracy to make and sell illegal drugs and embezzlement from Orange County's drug investigation fund.
Wade was removed from office as Orange County sheriff July 11 on order of a state district judge.
Wade's replacement, Sheriff Newton Johnson, testified Monday that he was present with Wade when Wade told the U. S. attorney he was going to pose as a crooked sheriff to catch drug dealers.
Wade's defense attorney has told the jury was was pretending to be a "dirty sheriff" to catch drug kingpins.
Rogers and Johnson were the only witnesses Monday as the trial before U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb started its third week. The trial was moved to Grayson County from Beaumont because of publicity surrounding the case Rogers, who said he sold cocaine and marijuana, testified about how Flowers recruited him in 1986 to sell methamphetamine, a stimulant also known as speed.
Flowers, who is under a federal witness protection program, has testified he was involved with Wade in an operation to make and sell methamphetamine.
Flowers told Rogers he didn't have to worry about legal penalties with selling drugs "because he had protection for the boss," Rogers testified.
Rogers said, he later learned the boss was Wade.
Rogers told the jury Wade gave him several pounds of marijuana numerous times. The amounts would vary from about four pounds to about 10 pounds at a time.
In return, he gave Wade money from the drug sales.
"Just about every time I met with him, I give (sic) him more money," Rogers said.
Rogers said he has pleaded guilty to federal charges of selling marijuana. Though Cobb will decide on his sentence, the plea agreement assures he will not spend more than five years in prison, he said.
He also will plead guilty to a state charge of theft of a bulldozer and that sentence will run at the same time as the federal sentence, he said.
On questioning from defense attorney Jeff Kearney, Rogers said he is "hoping for probation."
Johnson testified that he was with Wade and U. S. Attorney Bob Wortham in Wade's office in mid-1986 when Wade talked about a plan to pose as a crooked sheriff.
"Mr. Wortham advised that this might be a real smart thing to do," Johnson said.
He said Wortham told Wade that if he followed the proposal, he needed to keep it documented "to protect himself."
Johnson, on cross-examination by defense attorney Gary Richardson, said Orange County deputies in 1987 pulled the door hinge pins to enter the county's outside evidence shed, which Johnson called the "meth shed."
He said the deputies wrote a letter to county Commissioners Court requesting a more secure storage area and Wade signed the letter.
Earlier testimony has shown that methamphetamine lab equipment once seized by Orange County deputies in 1985 was found with Flowers when he was arrested in Hardin County in October.
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