Former guard acquitted
in ‘ice’ smuggling case

The defendant felt he was being
set up for his criticism of bias

A former Halawa prison guard was acquitted of possessing two ounces of crystal methamphetamine that authorities said was intended to be smuggled into Halawa prison.

An elated Richard C. Brooks emerged from the courtroom yesterday afternoon with both arms raised in victory after a not-guilty verdict was read.

"I've been vindicated for something I never did," said Brooks, 47. "I spent 73 days in a jail cell for a crime I never committed. All of this occurred because I did the right thing."

After the trial, Brooks said he was set up because he blamed the deaths of two inmates on prison staff and because of his complaints of discrimination.

Brooks went on trial Wednesday in Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall's courtroom on a charge of first-degree promotion of dangerous drugs.

Brooks was arrested April 18, 2003, after he accepted a manila envelope from an undercover police officer containing two ounces of the crystalline substance and $5,000 in cash from an undercover agent.

He was one of three people arrested that day by a joint Honolulu Police and FBI task force investigating how drugs were being smuggled into Halawa.

Brooks contends he did not know the envelope contained anything other than cash, did not see the drugs when he opened it to count the cash, and intended to deliver the contents to Honolulu attorney Thomas Stephen Leong. He also said he was the victim of entrapment.

But prosecutors said Brooks, an adult corrections officer at Halawa for 10 years, knew exactly what he was doing and had called the undercover officer the day before to set up the deal.

He also indicated to the undercover officer that he was making arrangements to receive "two o's" -- drug vernacular for two ounces -- to take into Halawa and that it would not be a problem to get it in, said deputy prosecutor Peter Marrack.

Brooks testified at trial that he thought the "two o's" meant he would be receiving the cash in $20 bills and that he did not have a problem delivering it to Leong.

Defense attorney Nelson Goo argued Brooks did not have access into Halawa and could not have smuggled the drugs in because he had been terminated from his job eight days before he was arrested.

Brooks was being investigated for receiving money from an inmate, a charge that he fought and later won after an arbitrator ruled in his favor.

Brooks believed that the money was to hire Leong to represent him in his labor dispute, Goo said. His belief was based on a letter and two phone calls by Michael Alvarez, an inmate he had befriended at Halawa who offered to help pay for his legal expenses if he took care of Alvarez's sister.

Alvarez was a confidential police informant.

At trial, jurors listened to the audiotapes of Brooks' call to the undercover agent and viewed a videotape of the meeting between them.

Brooks had no reason to get involved with drugs since he had found another job at the Sunnyvale Police Department in California with a salary of $96,000 a year, Goo said.

Alvarez also testified he never saw Brooks with drugs.

As a supervisor, Brooks said he wrote up two guards, including Melvin Moisa, who was also arrested the same day. Moisa pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing two ounces of crystal methamphetamine with the intention of smuggling it into Halawa. He was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Leong, who was arrested earlier in the day leaving the parking lot of Aloha Tower Marketplace after purchasing methamphetamine from an undercover officer, was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle drugs into Halawa and attempting to distribute methamphetamine.