The Binge Crimes: Night Shift - Borderlands | 7. Conspiracy

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

As a federal trial comes to a swift end, the community in Far West Texas grapples with the truth. Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of Witnessed, ad-free, right now by subscribing to The Binge. Plus, get binge access to brand new stories dropping on the first of every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Witnessed show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Campsite Media Thursday, January 9th, 1992. Pecos, Texas. A grand jury was meeting inside the federal courthouse, making a final decision about whom to indict for the big cocaine bust. Robert Chambers and his attorney, Rod Ponton, were there. So was U.S. Customs Agent Kelly Cook, who along with DEA Agent Dale Stinson, had headed up the investigation that had finally taken Chambers down. And Kelly saw another notable face there too,

Sheriff Rick Thompson. He was there. He was there with his wife, and there was a lot of people there, a lot of media there, because there was a lot of rumor that Rick was going to be indicted. It was a cold morning,

below freezing in the high desert, and the grand jury was scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. As the hours passed, everyone waited patiently. But there was nothing. No decision. The clock ticked. When a grand jury delays its decision, it's a sign that a case isn't so straightforward. In the jury room, there's a debate, uncertainty, deliberation, argument, dissent.

There's a possibility for a surprise. It had been a month since Dale and Kelly had intercepted that horse trailer full of cocaine. And so far, a grand total of one person had been arrested, Robert Chambers. But no one believed Chambers had acted alone. The question on everyone's mind in the gallery of the courtroom that day was who else would go down with him. The sun hung low in the sky over West Texas. Nothing. Darkness descended. Still nothing. Midnight approached. Then finally, the grand jury

emerged and gave its decision to the judge. Robert Chambers was indicted on several charges. Conspiracy with intent to distribute cocaine. Conspiracy to import cocaine. No surprise there. But when the citizens of far west Texas switched on their TVs the next day, the breaking news wasn't about Robert Chambers. It was about a more famous name that had been read aloud late that freezing night in the courthouse in Pecos. Rick Thompson is behind bars in the Reeves County Jail tonight, and it looks like he'll be there at least until Monday. Thompson was indicted on drug charges by a federal grand jury in Pecos late last night. The indictment accuses the sheriff of drug trafficking.

I'm convicted. He faces as much as a life prison sentence. From Campside Media, the first season of Witnessed, this is Borderlands. I'm Rob D'Amico. Chapter 7, Conspiracy. Dale Stinson was sitting in the courthouse gallery in Pecos that fateful Thursday night in January. Next to him, the chief deputy U.S. marshal in the area, a guy named Steve Balog. It was going to be Steve's job to take Rick Thompson into custody. Steve looked at me and he says, well, what are you going to do? And I said, Steve, you have only one choice. I said, you've got to take him into custody.

And he said, well, he's armed. I said, well, you know, he shouldn't be armed in the federal courthouse. You know, they were good friends. Steve looked at me and he says, this is going to be tough for me. And I said, Steve, here's the bottom line. I don't like it any more than you do, but either you're doing it or I'm doing it. And that was it. Took about 45 minutes, but it was done. So Steve Balog took Rick's gun, then handed him off to Kelly Cook. I remember when they went to get him out of the witness room upstairs that his, that I remember Barbara Jean, I think they were hugging and he was, and they were both crying. Kelly had to pry Rick away from his wife and process him, get him ready for jail. He was not happy, you know, that he was being processed, you know.

I tried to be, I tried to be friendly when I spoke with him, you know, when he brought him in, I said, how you doing, you know, and he just snapped, you know, fine, doing fine. Okay, whatever. And of course, you know, who can blame him? His life's flashing before his eyes. But Kelly, he thought Rick didn't look repentant. Not in the least. It looked to Kelly like this was the same defiant, self-justifying, maybe delusional Rick from that press conference. The guy who claimed he was running a reverse sting. Who said cops and crooks are just about the same caliber. He just looked mad. He just looked angry.

Like it was a setup, like it was a scam, a sham. He might have actually thought that, you know, but I don't know. I can't begin to imagine what was going through his mind because everything he had done was handled so horribly. I can't imagine what he was thinking, that he was going to walk away from this, but he really did. He really thought that. Martha Stafford, the longtime English teacher who remembered Rick Thompson in his heyday, was in Marfa the following morning as the impact of events in the Pecos courtroom started to reverberate around the waking town. I lived in Marfa at the time on a corner, and a guy that worked at the bank

lived across the street. And we never really chatted, you know, just waved. But I mean, I remember standing in the middle of the street talking to Mr. Mertz about it. You know, can you believe it? And then what's going to happen now? And, you know, and then it got to be where, you know, you had the people who said,

no, he's been set up. This is not true. And Marfa kind of divided over it at that point. But of course, Rick Thompson wasn't loved by everyone in town. Right from the start of his career as sheriff, he'd been a polarizing figure. His first election bid in 1976, it had been so close it had been resolved in the courts. And while the old ranching families loved the guy, he'd also had that reputation as La Puerta, the door. A cop who, if rumors were to be believed, was acting as the gatekeeper for the drug trade in the Big Bend,

deciding which drugs entered and which drugs didn't. So once Rick got indicted, all this came up to the surface again. To some, he was an upstanding lawman who was being persecuted. To others, he was a dirty cop who had finally got what was coming to him. You've got those who are guilty as charged, and then those who really said, no, there is no way. He was set up. You know, I remember the DEA agent and, you know, he was seen as a bad guy by a lot of people in Marfa because he did his job. Dale Stinson was that DEA agent.

Never very popular in Big Bend with the powers that be. He became a symbol of the federal government messing with good West Texas folks. Rod Ponton, Robert Chambers' attorney, he got cast as a villain too. How did the community feel about you representing Chambers, or did you get reactions from friends and family or the community? I got a lot of negative reactions because you've got to realize that 30 years ago the ranching community was still sort of prominent in the economies of Alpine and Marfa and the ranchers were still

pretty big players out here and they didn't like me representing Chambers so it was easier for them to deal with the situation by thinking that well Chambers just brought him down. Chambers just said things that brought him down. That Thompson really wasn't as bad as the government was saying. And so if you believe that theory, then you're going to be bad at Rod for representing Chambers.

This circling of the wagons, it wasn't just old guard ranchers. Keller remembers there was plenty of cops, too. You know, a lot of guys in the area stood by him. I mean, undying devotion stood by him. I do remember at one point in, I think it was the December meeting of the Big Bend Law Enforcement Officers Association, the president tried to get everybody to vote on like a proclamation or something that they would support the sheriff. It was soundly defeated, but there was just always a few officers who just couldn't wrap their mind around the fact that he may have been involved in something like this because Rick was corrupt. More after the break. Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder. I was struck by both how spooky it was,

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JESSE20 to receive 20% off your order today. That's JESSE20 for 20% off. From the moment the grand jury handed down the indictments, it looked like the deck was stacked against Rick Thompson. Federal charges on drug smuggling, they're very hard to walk away from. And making matters worse, on January 24th, Robert Chambers pled guilty. He had already agreed to testify against Rick at a trial. The sheriff knew that it was game over. So on February 11th, Rick Thompson threw himself at the mercy of federal judge Jerry Buckmeyer.

Suspended Presidio Sheriff Rick Thompson arrived at federal court in Dallas today in the company of his wife and his attorney. He came to plead guilty to one of four drug trafficking charges against him. In his terse appearance before District Judge Jerry Buckmeyer, Thompson acknowledged his involvement in the importation of more than one ton of near-pure cocaine over the Texas-Mexican border last December. The sheriff got two things for pleading guilty. The first was a promise from the U.S. attorney. He would only pursue one charge against Rick and recommend the judge give him the minimum sentence allowed, 10 years. In exchange, the sheriff agreed to cooperate with the feds in

the future. The second thing the sheriff got for his with the feds in the future. The second thing the sheriff got for his plea was more immediate. Judge Buckmeyer let him out on bond until his sentencing, which was scheduled for three months away. And on the outside, the sheriff played the last card that was left to him. He was going to try to leverage his popularity, his standing in the community, to convince the judge to take it easy on him, to view the drug smuggling as a small blight on a long otherwise exemplary career.

When Rick was out and had that ankle bracelet on, he published in the newspaper, in the Big Bend Sentinel, on February 13th, right before Valentine's Day. That's so sweet. 1992. A letter to Presidio County residents. Catherine Palmyra, she saved everything from this era. Old copies of the Sentinel, personal letters, notes to herself. That open letter Rick published, Here's how it read. I want to thank the citizens of Presidio County for their many years of support for my family and me. Our faith in God and our continued support have sustained us the last few months as it will in the future. I have always been willing to risk all in order to do my job until now.

Spending the rest of my life without my family is too great a gamble. I am in hopes I will be able to satisfy the courts and return to my family in time. I am accepting responsibility in this case and hope it will bring an end to the troubled time in the history of Presidio County. It is a time to let the healing process begin for this county, my friends and family. Serving Presidio County has given my family and me great pleasure. Please accept this as my resignation as your sheriff and tax assessor collector. Rick Thompson, Marfa. About a week later, the sheriff mailed a private letter to his friends and supporters.

Catherine got one. And it says, Dear Blank, we are asking our friends and family to help us in our attempt to persuade the judge hearing my case to consider probation. It would be helpful if you would be so kind as to write a letter on my behalf. Catherine didn't write a letter to the judge, but a lot of people did. Kelly, he kept marveling at the support the sheriff still had. Here was a self-proclaimed anti-drug crusader who had pled guilty to importing one ton of cocaine. How much more corrupt and hypocritical could you get? To the very end, I tell you, Rob, to the very end, there was a

letter-writing campaign. There were witnesses to talk about Rick's character and how he was such a model citizen, a terrific law enforcement officer, a career law enforcement officer. Until the judge rendered his sentence, people thought he had a chance to get probation. It was almost like the sheriff was running another election campaign for office, drumming up support with his base. But what sway would this have with the judge? Well, because Rick had already pled guilty to importing more than five kilos of cocaine, and the mandatory minimum sentence for that offense was 10 years in prison,

actually very little. That's some of the terrible representation of his lawyer. Because this judge, this judge had no option. For the judge to overrule the mandatory minimum and hand down a lighter sentence, he would need to decide the circumstances of the case were extraordinary and the defendant particularly worthy of mercy. Rick, his lawyer, his supporters, they didn't seem to grasp that in the judge's eyes, Rick might very well be a whole lot less than that.

On Friday, May 8th, Robert Chambers and Rick Thompson returned to Pecos for sentencing. The two men arrived in suits, no trademark hats, and were escorted into the federal courthouse by armed guards who were brandishing shotguns. The stakes were high in this case, and the government wasn't about to forget that they both knew a lot of information that a lot of powerful people wanted to keep quiet. Robert Chambers had already cut a deal.

The judge was going to sentence him to life in prison. But Rod Ponton, his attorney, had ensured that wasn't going to stick. Robert's sentencing was sort of two parts, because although Judge Buckmeyer gave him, I guess, a life sentence at the initial sentencing, there really at the time was already a deal to cut that based on Robert going to the grand jury and talking to him tomorrow. The U.S. attorney had hoped Rick Thompson would give them key information, help them follow the money, maybe indict more key cogs in the smuggling network. But according to every former federal indict more key cogs in the smuggling network.

But according to every former federal official I spoke with, in the three months between his guilty plea and his sentencing hearing, Thompson offered up no useful information whatsoever. So instead of snitching, his play was to leverage what he believed was his impeccable reputation and use it to convince the judge that he was a good man, worthy of another chance. He was holding on to those letters he'd encouraged his allies to write as his last chance at salvation. But Rick, well, he hadn't read the room.

Now, that letter-writing campaign backfired because everybody decided to take the opportunity to send a letter, but maybe not the kind that he expected. More than letters calling for leniency, the judge had received letters of outrage. How could a lawman so terribly betray the badge? Judge Buckmeyer didn't seem happy. The sheriff may have struck a deal with prosecutors, but the judge wasn't bound by it. He'd heard enough, and he was ready to make his ruling to the crowded courtroom. It was packed, I mean.

It was something, and you know, the gasps and the crying and all of that, you know, when he announced the life sentence. Life in prison. No possibility of parole. Everyone was shocked, even Kelly, who had put him away. It was kind of traumatic. I mean, and it hurt us too. I mean, this is a well-respected law enforcement officer. You know, you don't, you take joy in taking criminals off the street. You don't take any joy when a cop goes bad. It's just a sad day all around.

Sheriff Thompson left the courtroom that day thinking he'd never walk another free step in his life. Rod Pond remembers a man immediately diminished. I was just wondering what his demeanor was like. It wasn't very good after that. He shrank in stature a little bit. You're smiling as you say that. Well, that's what it was. You're facing a life sentence.

You can't hold yourself up very proud anymore. That's coming up after the break. Kelly Cook and Dale Stinson had huge ambitions for their investigation. They had mapped out a vast smuggling network, from the growing fields in Colombia to street-level dealers in every major U.S. city. And they were building a case to take a sizable chunk of it down. They knew the cocaine they were interested in started with powerful Colombian drug kingpins like Pablo Escobar, then came to Mexico under the protection of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Lord of the Skies.

Robert Chambers and his men would bring it across the Rio Grande. Then, with the help of Sheriff Rick Thompson, move it north toward Interstate 10. At that point, the drugs could float anywhere in the country, quickly, slipping in among the masses of cars and trucks pulsing every minute through the nation's highways. This operation that we were aware of had lots of ties to San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, on up into some players up in upstate New York, some players in Oregon. I think there might have been some sort of a Michigan connection. Things happened in Phoenix.

So yeah, it would have been a very large multi-jurisdictional operation and there you go the dream of most unambitious cops in the war on drugs might have been that end prize of the press conference with a pile of cocaine and cash on a table but dale and and Kelly had hoped for a lot more. A roundup all across the nation. Simultaneous arrests up and down the cocaine smuggling network. Maybe it wouldn't end the war on drugs in one triumphant day. But it could badly disrupt the workings of a vast and unapologetically murderous criminal organization. But that didn't happen. Instead, Dale and Kelly got two bad guys. Robert Chambers was a pretty big prize. They were happy to take him off the street. But putting away Rick Thompson made them uneasy. This was a fellow law enforcement officer from

West Texas, a guy who at least claimed to share their values and worldview. When Kelly talks about it now, sometimes he almost seems apologetic. Well, I still believe that Robert was supposed to be the informant for Rick. So the law enforcement officer is supposed to have control of his informant. I just felt like, and still feel like today, that that relationship was reversed, that Robert somehow controlled Rick, if that makes sense. Robert called the shots. Robert told Rick what was going to happen. And again, because this was such a vast scale for narcotic smuggling that Rick was just completely out of his element. So I still, to this day, I still feel like Robert somehow manipulated Rick into helping him. Whether Rick thought he was doing it legitimately or if Rick thought he was going to get a big pile of criminal money, I think Rick was just hoodwinked.

Dale, he subscribes to this thinking too. I think it's kind of a sad situation in many ways because in a lot of ways I look at Rick as being a victim in this whole thing and not just something else. Why was he the victim? Because he was used by Robert Chambers. But honestly, a lot of what I found in reporting this podcast, it just doesn't square with the idea that Sheriff Rick Thompson was some kind of rube who fell into a trap set by the conniving drug smuggler Robert Chambers. The Sheriff Rick Thompson that Catherine Palmyra knew in 1991, before the bust, he was allegedly

doctoring police reports, manipulating evidence, and launching his own small-town disinformation campaigns. He seemed to think he was above the law, or really that he was the law, which put him on exactly the kind of slippery slope that leads to big trouble. What jumps out at me in all of this, in so much of what I've heard from Dale and Kelly, is how badly they wanted to give Rick Thompson a way out. But he did indicate that at one point that Robert told him that they would get about a half a million dollars for this venture. I just don't know if he still tried to justify in his mind that it was some sort of law enforcement operation and this money would make great strides helping with the finances of the sheriff's office.

Or if he, you know, had really in his own mind gone bad and he was tired of the crappy salary, the long hours, you know, not really having anything. And he was just, he just kind of got to the point that he thought, you know, he just deserved something more than what he was getting. I just don't know. Because when he made that statement that, you know, Robert said we might get like half a million dollars, it was almost like he said it, but I really didn't believe it. But I was going to see what happened anyway. Kelly, one afternoon when we were talking, he said something pretty astounding. Something that shows just how thin the

line can be between cop and crook. After it was all over, I think the sheriff could have walked away the morning the trailer was seized and taken to the DEA office, later that day, if you would have just thought about it, drove to the DEA office and just raised hell with Dale. You know, about you came in and you messed up this entire operation. I had an informant and we were doing this operation. We were going to move this stuff. It would have been a real sloppy excuse for a drug operation, but I don't know that he could have been implicated for anything criminal

had he just reacted differently. Just an odd response when he knew what happened. He knew the DEA had picked up the trailer full of coke, but he never came forward. This scenario might very well have caused less heartache for Kelly. The sheriff acts in a non-guilty way. He never gets charged. He slinks away, rumor-plagued but free,

and lives out the rest of his days as a private citizen in Marfa. But as much as Dale and Kelly sympathize with Rick, they weren't going to give him a pass, because they weren't willing to break the law. They weren't even willing to bend it. They weren't happy seeing Rick get sentenced to life in prison, particularly when Robert Chambers was destined for a lighter sentence. But once Dale and Kelly knew the truth, they weren't going to look the other way. And once he knew the game was up, why did Rick put them in that position? Why did a sworn officer of the law, a man who served his share for 18 years, find it so objectionable to tell other law enforcement officers about illegal activities, knowing the difference it so objectionable to tell other law enforcement officers about illegal

activities, knowing the difference it could have made to their investigation? Why did he stay silent and uncooperative? Why did he put himself in a situation where a judge could sentence him to life in prison? These questions, they're probably the biggest lingering mystery of the case. As I've tried to answer them, I've heard plenty of thoughts, speculations, theories that crossed over into the conspiratorial. So many people would hint at something bigger. The best part of this story can't be told, you know, because it would implicate people who have never been indicted or charged or anything, and it would, their descendants. And I know that Monroe would be open to ask. He just wants certain things that he has to be kept off the record.

So, yes, I'm telling you. Other people might know it, but they're probably not stupid enough to open their mouth. It's a well-kept secret. People like Monroe and Catherine, and there were plenty of others too, they would start off like this, then say they couldn't go any further. But the people who were willing to be more forthcoming

on the subject of why the sheriff didn't talk, they all suggested the sheriff was protecting someone, or someones, and it usually all centered around a couple of theories. The first theory, maybe the sheriff was protecting corrupt federal officials. That was the thinking of Jack McNamara, the muckraking journalist and founder of the NIMBY News. He thought maybe the sheriff knew too much about the shady dealings in Central America.

I think of this as the Iran-Contra, Oliver North, something-something theory. It's probably old man crankiness, but I see Bill Barr behind everything that they refuse to give me. Something-something theory. Then there was another theory. Maybe the sheriff was protecting his political benefactors, the Anglo ranchers. Herb Serber, who's run the Marfa feed store for decades, explained this to me. Let me tell you something. You really want to know the story. There are 27 sealed indictments yet. And if you could ever get a word to those unsealed,

you will learn something that nobody else knows. Maybe some of these sealed indictments, where someone has been indicted, but officials seal that information from the public so criminals don't know the law is after them, revealed the identities of Anglo ranchers involved in drug smuggling. And Rick just didn't want to rat them out. I would imagine that train, they got all sealed up. And a lot of those folks are still alive and around here.

They're still in business. And some of them have left and a couple of them them died off. But, boy, if you could ever get one of them unsealed, you got a story like you would never believe. Herb is saying plenty of other Marfa residents were involved in smuggling. But Herb also reminds me. Everybody knows somebody. But if you name them, you prove it. You've got to have some substantial proof, you know, that it wasn't anybody.

Yeah, for sure. But there's no paper trail. And no official I've talked to has ever known of any sealed indictments. And to think that no one in that group of 27 would ever face charges after indictment, well, that doesn't hold up well. And oh, there's more. Well, I'll tell you the most outlandish story I've heard. They were taking the cocaine from across the border, taking it to Donald Judd's downtown, and then moving it over to the Godbolt feed mill, and then packing it in cattle feed bags and distributing it across the country. Now that one, you're very close though. Really? Donald Judd, the famed minimalist

artist heading up a drug smuggling network. Investigators like Dale unsurprisingly did not buy into the wildest of these types of stories. But he wondered about some of this stuff, too. You think, well, who's he covering up for? Maybe he's not covering up for anybody. But you kind of wonder about that, either. Because there's lots of talk. There's always lots of talk. You look at it and say, well, what can we do?

In the end, the closest thing to an answer that felt real, it came from Dale. About a year after the sheriff was sentenced, officials brought Thompson to see Dale for a final debriefing. Dale wanted to see if the sheriff might be more willing to talk, now that the dust was starting to settle. See if there was any useful information he could pry out of him. And when you saw him that last time, what did he look like? Completely different.

Long hair, beard, mustache, long hairy beard. And he was smoking. He said he was smoking cigarettes because that's the money in the prison system. And literally, did he just say, I've got nothing to talk about? What he said to me was, my ego wouldn't let me talk to you before. And I don't have anything now that's worth anything. I don't know anything. Did you believe him? I still don't have anything now that's worth anything. I don't know anything. Did you believe him?

I still don't believe him. I think he's honorable to the people he's friends with. And I don't fault him for that. But as for Robert Chambers, he wasn't so silent. Hello? Hello, may I speak to Robert? Hey.

Hey, this is Rob D'Amico. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. That's next time on the final episode of Borderlands was reported and hosted by me, Rob D'Amico, and written by me, Eric Benson, and David Waters. Eric Benson is our supervising producer. David Waters is our executive producer. At Campside, the executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher. Our field producers are Ryan Katz,

Travis Bubenik, and Jesse Basham. Our associate producers are Leo Schick and Lydia Smith. Fact-checking by Alex Yablon. Special thanks to Rajiv Gola and Ashley Ann Krigbaum. Scoring and sound design by Ian Chambers and Rod Sherwood is our engineer. Original music by Julian Lynch. If you enjoyed Borderlands, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. It helps other listeners like you find the show. And make sure to subscribe and review the show on Apple Podcasts. It helps other listeners like you find the show. And make sure to subscribe or follow the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.