Witness says Wade offered man illegal drugs
September 3, 1988
By Richard Bonnin
Staff writer
A 32-year-old Beaumont beautician gave a videotaped deposition Friday in which she said deposed Orange County Sheriff James Wade arranged to provide Jon Reaud with drugs in July 1987 to help him through a depression.
Two months later, Reaud and Wade drove a pickup truck to Reaud's house at 645 18th St. in Beaumont and one of the men offered her diet pills from a Grocery sack filled with yellow and white pills, Judy Morrison testified.
U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb conducted the hearing in Beaumont because Morrison is nine month's pregnant and unable to travel to Sherman, where Wade is on trial. The jury will see the woman's deposition later.
Morrison testified in her deposition that she was working as a hairdresser at a beauty shop adjacent to Reaud's house when the incidents occurred but is employed elsewhere now.
Wade, 43, is on trial for a 10-count federal indictment that includes charges of conspiracy to make and sell drugs and embezzlement from Orange County's drug investigation fund. He was removed as sheriff by order of a state district judge July 11.
Reaud, who has not testified in the criminal trial yet, said in an affidavit earlier this year he gave some pills to the FBI and told them he had received the pills from Wade.
Morrison and Reaud invited her to his house after work the week of July 4, 1987, to discuss problems in his friendship with Randy Raney, his roommate and operator of the beauty shop.
"A man came in who was introduced to me as Jim," Morrison testified during questioning from Assistant U. S. Attorney Stuart Platt. "I recognized him and said, 'Aren't you the sheriff of Orange County?' He looked at me like he wondered how I knew that. It was because I'd seen him on television."
Morrison testified that Wade asked Reaud if he had plans for the weekend.
"He asked if Jon wanted to go to Austin," she said. "When Jon said no, the sheriff said, 'Are you going to sit around here depressed or go to Austin with me. I've got something that will cheer you up."
Morrison said Wade then made a telephone call and told Reaud when the phone rang back to let him answer it.
A few minutes later, she said, a "thin man with long, dirty hair" came into the house carrying a briefcase.
"When the man left, (Reaud and Wade) began discussing a drug called methamphetamine," Morrison said, "and the sheriff asked Jon if he wanted it."
"What is it?" Reaud asked, according to Morrison's testimony.
"It's man-made speed," Wade said.
"How much does it cost?" Reaud asked.
"This one's on me," Wade said.
Morrison testified she saw no drugs or money change hands, but saw a small plastic bag containing a whit substance in the house after Wade had left.
Morrison said she told Reaud she was upset by what she had witnessed.
"I told him that one of the stupidest things you could do was to buy drugs from an official," she said.
In September, she testified, Wad and Reaud pulled into the driveway of Reaud's house in a "Blazer-type truck" and asked Morrison if she wanted diet pills, or knew of anyone who did.
" I don't remember which one asked," she said, "but I saw a bag in the back containing pills, I'd just seen a deal on television about a diet pill scam in Orange County."
"Did you draw a conclusion from that?" Platt asked.
"Yes, it seemed like it was connected," Morrison testified.
On cross-examination from defense attorney Jeff Kearney, Morrison often contradicted her testimony about some dates and the sequence of events.
"Was the person (carrying a briefcase) present during the July conversation about drugs?" Kearney asked.
"I can't remember step-by-step," Morrison said. "I wasn't studying the situation. I was scared at the time."
Kearney also tried to discredit Morrison's testimony.
"If someone said about you, 'Judy and I grew up with drugs - it was part of our life.' Would that be a true statement?"
"No sir," Morrison said.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Sherman.
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