The Binge Cases: Scary Terri - Betrayal on the Bayou | 6. Cops to Canaries

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

This is the story of how Chad’s team gets caught. Rose Graham is a grandmother who becomes Johnny’s unlikely peddler for the drugs he’s been stealing from evidence. One fateful night, Rose goes to a lakeside restaurant and tries to sell cocaine to an undercover State Trooper. Soon, Chad’s team turns on him. Subscribe to The Binge to get all episodes of Smoke Screen ad-free right now. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Smoke Screen: Betrayal On The Bayou show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. A Neon Hum & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the director of The Greatest Showman comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So, the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theaters. The Bench Rose Graham is with her grandmother outside Hooked Up Bar and Grill.

That's a spot on the North Shore, right on the Chifuncta River. Hooked Up is the kind of place that serves the staples of the bayou, fried catfish and crawfish etouffee. But Rose isn't there to eat dinner with Grandma. She's there working undercover for Chad's young protege, Johnny Domain. Rose is supposed to meet a drug buyer right there at the restaurant. She's sold him before, and Johnny wants to check this guy out. He said, make sure you take a picture of their license plate.

I want to run it and find out who he is. And I'm like, okay. This is fishy as hell, and it's not just the river. You see, Rose has been working for Johnny, but she's not really an informant. Johnny's been asking her to trust him because he's a cop. He's been twisting her arm and lying to her. But he's been doing all that to get Rose to sell drugs. Somewhere along the line, Johnny went from being drug cop to drug dealer

we went to rose's house sat down at the kitchen table and talked with her about it rose says she never knew what she was doing so you thought you were acting sort of like a undercover cop or something you know doing a good deed for people. I'm a dumbass. This is January 2016. Booby's grand supplier, Jorge Peralta, is on trial at the federal courthouse in New Orleans. Booby has taken the stand to tell the jury what Chad wanted him to say, that he'd met Peralta. This would later lead to perjury and obstruction charges for Chad. The shit is about to hit the fan for Chad and his team, but nobody knows it yet.

Across the lake on the North Shore, Rose is there at a hooked-up restaurant meeting a drug buyer. Her grandma's scared, so Rose says she'll go in first. I'm going to the restaurant to talk to him. You take the picture and come home. Her grandma snaps a photo of the license plate

to send to Johnny. And if bringing grandma along is any indication, Rose is not a savvy drug dealer. She's in her late 40s. She's white and blonde. She drops a surprising number of F-bombs. But she looks like Paula Deen. According to Rose, that's why Johnny picked her. He said, Rose, look at you.

Who would ever suspect you? He said, you always present yourself. You carry yourself as a lady. He said, who would think you were selling dope? Rose finds the drug buyer inside hooked up. And they asked me, do I want anything? I said, sure, I'll take a margarita.

Rose tells him about some cocaine she's trying to offload for Johnny. It's not much of a sales pitch, but it's what she's got. I said, I don't know if he's getting pounds, ounces, grams, or however it goes. I said, it might be Comet Cleanser. I don't know. I was just told to ask you about it. They continue talking about what kind of dope Rose can get him.

And I drank a margarita with him. He had something in his hand, dumb me. What did he have in his hand? I think like a key foita with him. He had something in his hand, dumb me. What did he have in his hand? I think like a key fob or something. He kept flicking it, not paying attention. Like I said, I've never done anything or been in this kind of trouble before in my life, you know, so I don't know. He could have had a recorder on his face. I don't know. Yeah, it was a recorder. Rose and Johnny are about to get a surprise. This guy she's trying to sell dope to,

the buyer, he's an undercover state trooper. A couple days later, Johnny gives her a call. That night he said, we gotta talk. I said, okay. So he comes and gets me. We're in his truck.

He said, Rose, I think we fucked up. I'm like, we fucked up? What do you mean? He said, okay. So he comes and gets me. We're in his truck. He said, Rose, I think we fucked up. I'm like, we fucked up? What do you mean? He said, Carl run the license plate and it's fucking state police. Johnny tells her that she's on the hook. Johnny and Carl are implicated too. They ran an undercover cop's license plate

in the middle of Rose's drug deal. Rose and Johnny are mulling it over in his truck when she gets a call. The state police got on the phone. Miss Graham, you need to come home now. We're at your house waiting on you. You and Domain need to get here now. This is the moment that Chad's A-team begins falling apart at 85 miles an hour. So far, we've seen Chad's misconduct.

It's complicated, entrenched in the DEA mission. It's hard to tease out the right from the wrong. Chad is about cutting corners to be a star agent. This next story is different. This is about Chad's hand-picked team, Johnny and Carl, going rogue. You've heard a lot about the system. Now let's tell you about the dirty cops. You're going to hear exactly what Johnny and Carl have been up to.

And as a warning for listeners, this episode contains descriptions of addiction and sexual misconduct. Chad says this all happened behind his back, that he didn't know anything about it. Whether or not you believe him is up to you. Either way, Chad is screwed because this is the Fed's leverage. This is how they're going to get the A-team to turn on him. I'm Feynman Roberts.

And I'm Jim Mustian from Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. This is Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Episode 6, Cops to Canaries. Hi, everyone. This is Jonathan Van Ness. Clean water, fresh air, our health. Electricity, honey. We tend to take for granted the things that matter most, like the separation of church and state. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been

on the front lines defending your freedom to live and believe as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Most folks don't see how church-state separation affects our daily lives until that freedom is gone. The separation between church and state covers many core freedoms like civil rights for LGBTQIA plus people, women and racial slash religious minorities, or reproductive justice and freedom. But those rights are not a given.

Every day, Americans United works at the state and federal level to make sure these freedoms and more are protected for every American to enjoy and benefit from. They can't do this alone though. Join Americans United for separation of church and state and growing the movement because church-state separation protects everyone. Freedom without favor and equality without exception. Learn more and get involved at au.org slash curious. Hi everyone, this is Jonathan Van Ness. Clean water, fresh air, our health. Electricity, honey. We tend to take for granted the things that matter most, like the separation

of church and state. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been on the front lines defending your freedom to live and believe as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Most folks don't see how church-state separation affects our daily lives until that freedom is gone. The separation between church and state covers many core freedoms like civil rights for LGBTQIA plus people, women, and racial slash religious minorities, or reproductive justice and freedom. But those rights are not a given. Every day, Americans United works at the state and federal level to make sure these freedoms and more are protected for every American to enjoy

and benefit from. They can't do this alone, though. Join Americans United for separation of church and state and growing the movement because church-state separation protects everyone. Freedom without favor and equality without exception. Learn more and get involved at au.org slash curious. That night, after they get the call from state police, Johnny and Rose return to her house. According to a police report, when they get out of Johnny's truck, his hands are shaking.

Johnny asks if he's going to jail. He tells the cops it isn't what it looks like. But of course, it's exactly what it looks like. Rose is arrested right there at her house. Johnny voluntarily comes along for questioning. And by the end of the night, Johnny is placed under arrest too. Johnny, a federally deputized

task force officer, Chad's hand-selected protege, is locked up for drug dealing. But soon, Johnny gets a proffer letter, or what prosecutors often call a queen for a day.

That's an agreement to tell law enforcement everything he knows, with a deal that the information can't be used against him later in court. Johnny, you understand why you're here today? Yes. We have these interviews between Johnny and the state police. Meaning nothing you say, and you'll be held against your criminal. We're just looking for the truth, and that's all we wanted. Yes, sir. Thank you. In them, Johnny sounds uneasy. Remember, Johnny's in his 20s, and he's had a rough time of it.

His mom died a few years back, and his dad left when he was a kid. According to Carl, it seemed like he was lost. Over the past couple years, Johnny's become a rising star on Chad's DEA task force. It almost doubles his salary. And if Johnny continues to work hard, being on the task force would be the first step to becoming a full-time federal agent.

But Johnny did some really bad shit and is now being called to task. Johnny's future is crumbling before his eyes. Slow down. Hey, Johnny, look up. Nobody in this room is here to judge you, okay? There's no reason for you to hang your head. We're just having a conversation.

We're trying to get to the truth, okay? Johnny holds it together and tells them everything they want to know. I guess let's begin with your relationship with Rose Graham. How did you come to know Rose Graham? We was making CIFIs from her. This is the story of how Rose and Johnny met. An informant tells Johnny and Carl that Rose was selling pain pills from her house. It's not really clear whether Rose was in the drug game before Johnny came along.

In any case, Johnny, Carl, and another task force agent show up at Rose's house with a search warrant. It's a small team. It was just three guys. We knew they were middle class. You know, it wasn't much threat with them. Rose and her husband had just come home from shopping, and they were unloading their truck. Here's Rose. Unmarked cars or whatever you want to call it just swarmed us. They just come with guns just aiming at us. And my husband in 2013,

he was in a bad accident. So he had half of a kidney and half of a lung. After they pushed my husband down on the ground, I'm like, whoa, whoa, that's my husband you just pushed. He only has half of a kidney. Stop. You need to stop. We're going to incorporate whatever you want. We didn't even know what the hell was going on at this point, you know? Carl tells them to get in the house.

They closed the door. Click, click, nine millimeters to our brains. I said, where's the money, the safe, and your guns? Rose says that one of the officers put a gun to their heads. Johnny says it wasn't him, and he never saw it happen. And my husband said, Oh, you already got us here. We're going to cooperate.

Just, what do you want? We want you to lead us to your safe. Next thing I know, they're in my bedroom just tearing it apart. Carl and Johnny search while the third officer watches Rose and her husband. The third officer is young, around Johnny's age, and he has no clue what's going on. He looked at me and he whispered, he said, this is bullshit. I'm like, what do you mean? He said, I don't know what they're doing, but this is bullshit. They need to let y'all go. Carl and Johnny find guns, prescription drugs, and money. And then Johnny comes out and he said,

this is our money that y'all bought, that was drug bought money or whatever he said. I'm like, I don't sell drugs, dude. I'm a rat holder. I save money. If I got an extra $100 or two, I'll put it up. Next thing I know, I took that money too. Johnny and Carl took a few thousand dollars. They didn't pocket the full amount. Johnny says that was a strategy that Carl taught him.

He'd always turn in something, you know. He would never keep the whole thing. He always said, if you don't turn in nothing, it looks crazy. If they always turned some cash over to evidence, they could fudge the exact amount they seized. It was their word against an accused drug dealers. That made it easy to skim off the top. Next, they were on to the pills. The narcotics, what did y'all find there?

Oxycodone pills. I believe Valium pills. Was it a large quantity? It was a good bit, yes sir. What would you consider a good bit? It was over 100. So y'all took all of that? Yes sir. It's the same strategy with the drugs. They turn some into evidence so that it doesn't look suspicious. It probably took 60 to 70 pills, maybe more. This story, how Johnny goes from the kid who had it tough, who people say will one day be a better agent than Chad Scott, to the guy stealing money and drugs, it only makes sense when you know a couple things about Johnny.

The first, he never officially passed his background check to become a task force member, but he was allowed to start working anyway. Here's our DEA long-timer, Skip Sewell. The sheriff's office has a limited budget to do backgrounds. It's not like the federal agencies who can do a detailed background. They do a cursory background and hire Johnny not knowing about his past. Johnny made a lot of cases working narcotics for the sheriff's department,

so Chad recruited him onto the task force. But a federal background check takes a really long time. Say a task force officer gets assigned to DEA. He comes over from a sheriff's office. Well, the sheriff's office, I don't want to say washes their hands of them, but hey, you're gone. You're assigned to DEA. He comes up to DEA and DEA says, wait, not so fast.

We got to do all your background stuff. You can't do anything until we get all this stuff done. And it can take months to do. In the meantime, you've got a guy that's not really supposed to be at his department and he's not really supposed to be at DEA. So he'll come up there a lot of times, and he'll just sit for hours on end. But it's a bad design, and that's why Johnny was down there working with DEA on cases before he was ever sworn in as a task force agent. And that slow process might just be an annoyance

if nothing comes up in the background check. But in Johnny's case, they did find something. While Johnny's background investigation was going on, we determined that Johnny had a lot of outstanding debt, bad credit cards that he hadn't paid off, student loans, all kind of stuff. Why is credit a problem? Because you don't want the task force agent dipping into the defendant's money

when they arrest him to pay their bills. Johnny had to get out of debt. And if he didn't, he'd likely get cut loose from the task force. Well, the A-team had just the solution. They start cutting Johnny in. Carl sometimes takes money and drugs from people they arrest and distributes to whomever he thinks should get a cut. And he starts breaking off a piece for Johnny.

Johnny says he has a cousin who will sell the drugs for him. They also have a bunch of wallets, guns, cell phones in their DEA desks. These are personal possessions they've taken from people they've arrested. They regularly root through this drawer to take a little petty cash out of the wallets, and Johnny starts getting a piece of that too. Call it corruption, but it's all intended to help Johnny fix his debt problems so that he can pass his DEA background check and get formally deputized. This abuse of power,

it's called conversion of property in the federal parlance. They'll later face charges for it. They hide this misconduct from their supervisors, who at the time included Skip. Okay, so thing number one is that Johnny's in so much debt that it's putting his career on the line. Carl is giving him money and drugs to sell to help him fix his situation.

That's bad, but it's not Johnny's worst problem. The state police follow up on the drugs from Rose's house. Y'all took probably 70 or 80 pills and sold them? Yeah. Do you remember pills and sold them? Yeah. Do you remember who you sold them to? This second thing Johnny has been hiding from his team. He tells the state police. I was taking pills when I was

15 years old. I took them until I was 23. Johnny has been addicted to opiates since he was a teenager. I graduated from college. I moved back. I told myself that was a teenager. I graduated from college. I moved back. I told myself that was it. I was hooked on them. I started out with the sheriff's office,

and then, you know, I relapsed. This is what Johnny hides from Carl. Carl would hold on to the pills. I'd tell Carl they were from my cousin, but I wasn't giving him money out of my pocket to buy them. So you were buying the pills, but you weren't telling Carl they were for you? Correct. So Carl was getting pills from either a search warrant or a traffic stop,

putting them in his vest, and then eventually selling them to you. Yeah. Back at Rose's house during the search, Johnny and Carl have taken her money and her drugs. And now Johnny gives Rose an ultimatum. He said, you're going to work for me. I'm like, work for you? What do you mean? He said, you're going to work for me for one year.

That's the reason why we're not going to put you in jail. You're going to keep your mouth shut and you're going to do what we tell you or you will go to jail. You might recognize this speech. This is an abridged, tailor-made version of the kind of talk Chad might give one of his informants. Rose, Boobie, they're both off the books. Not signed up, but they're still under an agent's thumb. Chad uses the informality of their relationship to get the most out of Boobie. Put a lot of drug dealers behind bars. Pump up his stats. Get a truck.

And Johnny uses this power for drug dealing. This episode is brought to you by Canon Canada. From street interviews to vlogging or filmmaking, great content gets even better when you're shooting with great gear. That's what Canon's Level Up sales event is all about. With awesome deals on their range of cameras and lenses, you can grab everything you need for that shot or scene you've been dreaming of for less. Whether you're helping that special person take their content up a notch or adding that extra quality to your own shoots,

Canon's got you covered. Shop the level up sales event today at canon.ca. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic or your sink full of dishes? As an actor, it's very free being part of these shows. You can step in the booth and kind of be anything. Well, for us, and I'm going to guess for some of you, that thing is... Anime! Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. I literally, when I saw it, when I found out about this, I literally had like a nervous breakdown in a good way.

With the best celebrity guests. I've never pirated anything, but I'll steal it if I have to. That was how I felt when I started to get really hooked on Black Butler. Oh, it's coming back. It's coming back. So join us every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. Soon, Johnny starts calling on Rose to sell the drugs he's been stealing. Apparently, she thinks she's working as an undercover informant. Johnny gives her a giant bag of purple-tinged marijuana and some handy advice.

He said, you go sell to him, but don't let him look in your eyes. I'm like, huh? He said, don't let him see your eyes. I'm like, what the fuck? I don't know what he's talking about. So I'm like, okay. And then we're dealing and a guy looks at me. He said, hold up, take those glasses off. And I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm like, well, he said, you got pretty eyes. I'm like, bitch, go on with yourself. For about four months, Rose sells marijuana and pills for Johnny.

They're spending a lot of time together. Rose finds that she really likes him. When you and Johnny were getting closer, what did you see in him? I wasn't getting the shit at home that I was pretty and, you know, just a nice talk or, you know what I'm saying? It just kind of made me feel good because I'm a fat and ugly woman

and this guy's cute and telling me all these nice things that I want to hear, you know, that I've been longing for. My husband and I was fighting. I was losing my grandbaby to leukemia and my brother at the same time. And my husband and I, we just went off the deep end with each other. And we started fighting, and Johnny led me a good game. I fell for his ass like a fallen damn brick off a 20-foot story building. Yeah.

You and Johnny had a romantic relationship? No, but it could have been, but it never, we never, it got close, but not that close. Johnny came to her house, stole her money

and her pills, forced her to work as a drug dealer for him, and in response, she fell for him. It's a fucking mess. After I fell for Johnny, I hadn't heard from him for about a week.

And I kind of got depressed. And when he called me, he said, Rose, I need to talk to you. He said, can you meet me? I think it was Christmas or Thanksgiving. I was making fudge or whatever for my holidays, you know, because I cook. I'm like, let me finish my fudge or whatever I'm doing and I'll come. My husband got livid. You're fucking leaving and going to see him. And I think he done put it together, you know? And I'm like, well, I got to go do this. That's

why I'll just tell him I got to go do this. Rose leaves to meet Johnny. And he looks depressed. And I'm like, what's the matter? He said, I fail. I'm like, are you okay? You want to go to the doctor? You fail. He said, no, Rose, I fail. I'm like, you fail. So what are you talking about? If you don't want to go to the hospital, what's the matter? He said, I'm falling for an older woman. I'm like, this pop's getting pissed. I'm like, who the fuck is she? He said, you dumbass. I'm like, okay. And then we start talking and he shows me this thing, a hard, white, round thing. It's got a dip in the middle. And I'm like, what's this?

He said, something we can make a lot of money with. I'm like, what is it? He said, it's cocaine. I'm like, okay. He said, once I do this and your year's up and my year's up, he said, I'm getting the hell out of this. He said, I'm tired of it. He said, I don't want this life anymore. I'm like, what kind of life?

Because at the time, I was still thinking he's the police and he's doing the right thing, you know. He said, I'm just tired of it. I want out of it. And I said, okay. This is the cocaine that Rose would try to sell to that state trooper it hooked up. The day after that ill-fated margarita, a state trooper shows up at Rose's house while she's in Johnny's car. Well, the next thing I know, my husband's calling me.

Where the fuck you at? I'm bitching at him. I'll be home when I fucking get home. And the state police got on the phone. Miss Graham, you need to come home now. We're at your house waiting on you. You and Domain need to get here now. I'm like, yes, sir.

And I told Johnny. He said, we fixing to fucking run. I said, the fuck, yeah, I ain't running. I'm done. I'm done. At this point, I was done. I said, I'm going to take him all day. They don't try to make a run for it.

But not long after Johnny's arrested, the state police are already changing their focus. How much time do you have on the job? Three years. Three years? Anywhere at age 2,000. The thing that I have a difficult time seeing, believing, that you created that monster in that short period of time. You're the young guy. You're the fish, okay?

You were taught to do things the wrong way also. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Okay. But I can't put words in your mouth. I need you to explain that to us. Okay. The day after Johnny's arrest, the state police asked Carl to come in for questioning.

Carl's strategy is deny everything. Have you ever seen anything with Johnny, heard him say anything, seen him do anything that raised some concerns with you? You know, ever since I heard he got arrested, I racked my brain all day wondering why he would do this. And I know Johnny had some money issue problems, and that's the only thing that I could come up with. He ever ask you for any financial help? No, I've actually offered the man financial help. You know, he said, nah, he said, I'm good. I'll take care of myself.

I mean, I've been floored by it, seriously. I've been sick to my stomach all morning for him. Here's a young kid that's done everything going for him. We got on the DEA task force within two years of being on the job. Loves the job, and he does something like this. I don't understand. two years of being on the job, loves the job, and he does something like this. I don't understand. Within 48 hours, the state police have a meeting with Johnny and Carl's boss,

Tangipoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards. We talk with the sheriff about how it all went down. Basically, we're getting told this is what happened. This is how Johnny got arrested. And I remember a comment being made by one of the state police guys that says, you know, we've been after Chad Scott for 10 years, and this is finally going to lead us to him. Remember when we said Chad made enemies in law enforcement? Well, it turns out some of those enemies are now investigating his team for corruption. And as soon as they get Johnny, it's an immediate bridge to Chad. And I had to interject and told him, I said, listen, I'm going to say this up front and in front of everybody.

If the evidence in this case leads to Chad Scott or anybody else, I will help you, you know, get there and do it right. I said, but I think it's completely irresponsible to within the first 48 hours of investigation to say where it's going to lead you. And I think that's problematic. And of course, when I said that, there was a lot of backtracking going on, but it was a problem. Chet still has friends like the sheriff. And the sheriff is not just any ally. He's the governor's brother. to any ally.

He's the governor's brother. By now, Chad has caught the attention of the feds. This is all about shutting me down. That's all it's ever been about. Because I work fucking circles around it.

This is a professional attack. And they're trying to figure out if Chad is corrupt. Could the sheriff and the governor also be mixed up in this? Ever. And I arrest more people than anybody in New Orleans. And I'm disgusted. Could the sheriff and the governor also be mixed up in this? The feds are trying to figure out how high up it goes. The federal investigation we started this podcast with has just begun. Johnny confesses to a long list of misconduct. He knows a lot about Carl. They work together very closely. But Chad?

Johnny has suspicions. But he didn't see much with his own eyes. And then Carl will kind of make statements about Chad. You know, some of it's just greedy. You know, if we take something, it's just me and him. So he kind of isolated himself, where he only trusts kind of one guy, which was Carl. The next step for the FBI is to break Carl.

Within a month of Johnny's arrest, the head of the New Orleans DEA is removed from the office and recalled to D.C. Chad has moved far from his turf and reassigned all the way up to New Jersey. And Carl is arrested on counts of abuse of office and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. But the feds have a problem. Carl is not cooperating. He's not rolling on his longtime partner, Chad. So investigators need to learn all they can about Carl so that they can ratchet up the pressure. And Johnny is singing like a canary. Douglas Bruce from the DOJ. If you can go back to the very first time or when you first learned that Carl Newman

was using drugs. That would have been that New Orleans trip. It was early 2015. This is before a lot of stuff. Before the team was aware that Johnny had ever used opiates. Before Johnny was cut in on stolen cash. And months before they raided Rose's house. According to Johnny, that other task force officer,

the one around his age, was talking about going out. He'd like to go out, you know. I was more reserved, you know, I ain't going out. You know, Carl stated he'd go. I said, well, you know, if he'd go, I'd go just because I was out to Norm, you know. Johnny says they're all out on Bourbon Street drinking. It's Carl, Johnny, the third officer, his wife, and a woman Carl is seeing on the side, who turns out is an informant. Dating informants isn't supposed to happen. Anyhow, the night gets weird. The tone shifts.

Yeah, they're all kind of drunk. But it's something else, too. The night gets weird. The tone shifts. Yeah, they're all kind of drunk. But it's something else, too. Somebody had slipped ecstasy into their drinks. They rent a hotel room, and somehow they all end up in the shower together. Ecstasy can blur the lines of consent. That's especially true if somebody slipped it to you i mean to be on ecstasy was just you know something's wrong but you feel so good that you can't you know if that makes sense it's hard to explain it's hard for us to say you know because i don't exactly exactly so it's hard to explain you know you're drugged yeah but the euphoria is

so great and you're so excited everything but the euphoria is so great. And you're so excited. Everything feels so good. Of course, when there's other women and there's other men in the room, you're going to be touching. You know, the females are going to be touching the men. Women are going to be, you know. It's hard to tell what lines were crossed that night. The third officer is up all night in the hotel room, thinking about what had happened. Waking me up the next morning, you know, Johnny, we gotta go, we gotta go. I'm like, you know, what you

talking about? You know, we gotta get out of here, we gotta get out of here, so hurry up and get dressed. The third officer figures that they must have been drugged, and after they're out of the hotel, he tells Johnny. I was more of the, it's gonna, you know, don't think like

the, you know, it's gonna be alright, you know, it's going to be all right. And, you know, I already had a relationship with Carl. I said, you know, I'll call him and I'll figure out what's the deal. Johnny gets a hold of Carl and asks him what happened. You know, I said, what's the deal, you know. Carl stated, you know, he put ecstasy in the drinks and all that stuff. This point is controversial. Carl told us that he provided the ecstasy, but Johnny was the one who drugged everybody.

But in interviews with the feds, Johnny was firm about it being Carl. When Johnny talks about it, he seems upset and confused. The next morning, we were so shocked that we were drugged. It was almost embarrassing. You know, it was almost like, I can't believe, you know, you was almost hurt. So it was, anytime we look back on that experience, it wasn't necessarily like a happy experience.

It was kind of like, I mean, anytime you get screwed over, you know, it hurts. You know, you get mad about it. Now, that didn't mean Johnny stopped hanging with Carl. Johnny made a choice. He covered for Carl. And he lied to the third officer, who by all accounts was an honest guy who was freaked out by the situation.

Michael Gannon, the guy with the Boston accent from DEA Internal Affairs, asked him about it. You knew if he knew Carl did it, it would have potentially been a problem. Correct. Just try to sweep it under the rug. And try to protect Carl and try to protect the whole thing, you know.

Carl said, hey, I just did it, you know, because I thought it would be fun and all this other stuff. And, well, look, I can handle that. You know, it hurt me, but I'll smooth it out. When you listen to hours of Johnny talking to the feds, two stories stand out. Johnny tells the feds about the first time he says he broke the rules.

He and Carl busted a meth dealer and took the dope for testing. At first he was really excited because it was a lot. Hey, man, we got over on him. You know, but you could just tell that it looked like salt rocks. You know, it didn't look like real ice. It tests negative. It's fake meth. The dealer had tricked

Johnny and Carl. Investigators ask about Carl's reaction. I mean, he would have just laughed, you know, but kind of like rhetorical laugh. Like, you know, yeah, you're right, it's bullshit. You know. Johnny is pissed, but he remembered something another task force member had said before when they got fake dope. Make it test.

As in, make it test positive for meth. So Johnny decides to give it a try. You know, and I kind of said, you know, I wish I could switch or some shit like that. And Carl looked at me saying, you know, I was waiting to see if he was the real police. They go to the office, where they can swap it with real meth from evidence. While Carl was switching in the front office at the tri-parish, they got a big window. You know, he told me, watch the driveway. Make sure nobody was coming down. And I was, you know, I was so nervous, I was walking back and forth from Ms. Carroll's office to the front, you know?

I mean, so this is like a first time that you really do this? That was really like the first time, you know, because I remember Carl was on the phone, and he was behind me. And I was thinking, you know, he was calling somebody to say, you know, this kid's dirty or whatever. But that was, you know, it never happened. For the record, Carl says that Johnny was the one to switch out the dope. Point is, Johnny was corruptible, and he's professionally ambitious.

Faking the evidence here will make this a federal case, which would look good on his record. But this tactic is not something Johnny invented. When Carl takes Johnny under his wing, this is the world Carl's showing him. The second story we're going to go into takes us to rural Kentucky. And this story is important because it shows us the kinds of information they were digging up about Carl and what the feds were planning to do with it. Johnny tells them about a spot Carl liked to visit every year.

Carl would say he was going up there for work. But, you know, in reality, you go up to a guy named Chucks, which was, I guess, his mistress's uncle. So he asked me if I wanted to go. By that time, me and him got pretty close. Johnny tells the feds that Carl would change out the license plate on his work truck and bring drugs up to Kentucky. So the feds make a trip up there to dig up some dirt.

DEA Internal Affairs talk with one of Carl's mistresses. Is this going to be used against me? We're not using this against you. We're used against him. Yes. Let me explain something to you. By Carl being a police officer, by giving you drugs that he got from DEA law enforcement purposes, and then engaging you in a sexual relationship is a misuse of his office.

It's a misuse of his authority. We are not allowed to do that. So this is not against you. You're a victim, not a suspect. But she wants nothing to do with it. And whatever they might be saying here, a lot about her will come out later in court. I have no affiliation with this. I'm married.

Right. I have a very Old Testament husband. We'll explain all that to the prosecutor. But like I try to tell you, I wouldn't worry about having to testify in court over this because I highly suspect that it will be a plea agreement. We're trying to get Carl to roll on somebody else. Yeah. It will be a plea agreement.

We're trying to get Carl to roll on somebody else. Yeah. So the stronger case we have against him, then the better chance he's going to play ball with us. It's not Carl we even want. It's somebody else. And certainly not you. So that's how the game works.

What the investigators are saying here is that no matter what she might tell them, they're only really interested in the information because it will help them nail Chad. So to seal the deal, they tell her a little bit about Carl's history. I'm not trying to be here and upset you, but this guy was all over the place with women. Really?

Yeah. So I don't know what he would have said to you, but I need to know those things because that's stuff I know. And I'm not trying to keep it from him. I'm not trying to upset you. I'm just trying to be honest with you. In the end, she talks with them.

And she tells them about Johnny and Carl's visit to Kentucky. His reason for bringing Johnny up was, I guess he'd come off a case maybe or something. Best I remember. And he wanted to see Kentucky. Okay. He'd never seen it. He brought him up here. And it's more of a relaxed lifestyle up here. A lot of people don't work. They four-wheel and stuff like that. And in the spring, everybody goes mushroom hunting up here. And it's kind of Coral's big thing is he always wants to go on a mushroom hunt. Morels? Yeah.

And to bring Johnny and, you know, I guess see live hillbillies, kind of a peep show. Because it is kind of nutty, especially at my uncle's holler. You know, crazy hillbillies, no teeth. You know, big beer belly dudes on four wheelers. Good times. Well, that does sound like good times. Johnny's trip to Kentucky seemed pretty innocent, at least from her perspective. But the feds have heard from Johnny, well, a lot of things.

That Carl brought drugs up there to be sold. That he used drugs to get women to sleep with him, or exchanged drugs for sex. The feds aren't really interested in Morales. They're looking for dirt. Do you think you did Molly with Carl? Yeah. Well, why do you say you think that?

Well, I'm pretty sure it was a capsule. Okay. And he would have you take it with him? Yeah, I mean but we tried it. And do you recall if that, like, maybe made your inhibitions more prominent or anything like that? Yeah. Well, explain that. Tell me what happened after you used it. And where were you?

It just felt like somebody was grabbing you by the jaws and pulling you down. Mm-hmm. You know, it was just an experience. This girlfriend said that everything was consensual. But molly or ecstasy or meth, those seem to have been Carl's favorites to use with women. There are many, many stories of Carl taking drugs from evidence and giving them away like Santa Claus. He also had sexual relationships with informants who he provided with drugs. Carl told us one story about hitting the town high on ecstasy with a woman he's seen,

right after his wife gave birth to his son. A prosecutor sees him and thinks the woman is his wife. The prosecutor asks about the baby, and the woman plays along. Says the baby? He's at home. The stories, they could go on and on. That Carl is kind of hard to square with the lovable lawman who drinks milk for lunch. After digging, prosecutors scare the shit out of him, threaten him with life in prison. Carl talks with his wife from jail. They said, you know, we're really not after you, Carl.

We're after Chad. And that's the moment we heard Carl. That thing winds up being 150. Carl, I'm be for your car. That thing winds up being 150. 150? Yeah. Did you say 150? Yeah, life. Holy cow.

How can they do that? They can do it. Carl's already been locked up for about a year, and he's about to break. All that stuff that they dug up about him, he's not going to be charged with. He's going to take a plea to reduce charges and testify against Chad.

While Carl's in jail contemplating his life like a Dostoevsky novel, Chad has been suspended from duty. So I was actually flying back from Kentucky. I was working for a law firm at the time in Kentucky. He's working for a friend, one he does competitive water skiing with. And flying back,

walking through the New Orleans International Airport, and I look at the news screen in front of one of the restaurants, and I see raid on the Tanchpo Parish Sheriff's Department and Hammond Police Department. Chad's ally, Sheriff Daniel Edwards, the guy who stuck by Chad, insisted the investigation into Johnny was moving on too soon. He's got himself in the Fed's crosshairs.

moving on too soon, he's got himself in the feds' crosshairs. I mean, it stopped me dead in my tracks. Because obviously with what's going on, it certainly has something to do with this case. Chad's time is running out. That's next time on Smokescreen, Betrayal on the Bayou. Infamous is celebrity gossip, but smart. It takes you deep into the stories that we just can't stop ourselves from following. From who Meghan Markle really is. Apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing.

To the scandal at Lululemon. You've got this man saying that his yoga pants don't work for women because they're too fat to wear them. We've got over 100 episodes ready for your binging pleasure. Listen to Infamous, the gossip show that's smart. Smokescreen Betrayal in the Bayou is an original production by Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. It was written and produced by Odelia Rubin. It was reported by me, Jim Mustian, and my co-host, Feynman Roberts. Our editor is Catherine St. Louis.

She is also Neon Hum Media's executive editor. Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Sound design and mixing by Scott Somerville. Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shi. We also use music by Blue Dot Sessions

and Epidemic Sound. Our associate producer is Anne Lim. Fendall Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Samantha Allison. Alexis Martinez

is our podcast coordinator. Special thanks to Stephanie Serrano, Mia Warren, and the third cohort of Editors Boot Camp, who gave us feedback on this episode. And to our DEA consultant, Skip Sewell. We couldn't have made this show without the support of our legal team, including Lauren Pagone, Rachel Goldberg, and Allison Sherry. I'm Jim Mustian. And I'm Feynman Roberts. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review.

It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. Thanks for listening.