MOUNT VERNON — Two local men and a local woman who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking said the informant that Mount Vernon police used to buy drugs from them, stole drugs and money from the police.
Three out of 24 people indicted in August by a special grand jury pleaded guilty one week ago to multiple counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs.
Jesse P. Humphrey, 27, Robert A. Schaade, 40, and Jody L. Punches, 21, all of Mount Vernon, admitted in court to selling Oxycontin, a prescription pain medicine, to Jason P. Blubaugh, an informant for the Mount Vernon Police Department. All three said that Blubaugh kept money that the police gave him to buy drugs from them, and hid from the police some of the drugs they sold to him.
Court records identify Blubaugh, 35, as the sole eyewitness in at least 14 different local criminal prosecutions for drug trafficking. The records refer to him as confidential informant 18. A Mount Vernon News investigation shows that in all 14 cases, Blubaugh turned over to police fewer drugs than police had expected him to buy from the suspects in those cases.
According to police records, standard procedure for a “buy-bust” operation requires officers to first meet with the informant for a briefing. At that meeting, officers are supposed to search the informant and his vehicle for drugs, cash or contraband, and go over what they want the informant to do. They supply the informant with money to buy drugs from suspected drug sellers.
The officers fit the informant with a microphone and transmitter to broadcast to the officers the informant’s conversations while buying drugs from suspects. After the buy, police are to take all of the purchased drugs from the informant. Police also are supposed to search the informant and his or her car to make sure the informant has not kept any drugs or any of the money that police supplied for the buy.
Throughout the operation, the police are supposed to keep the informant under constant visual surveillance. When it is over, the informant is released from custody and surveillance.
Eight of the 14 defendants accused of selling drugs to Blubaugh admitted to the News that they sold drugs to Blubaugh, but also allege that Blubaugh lied to police officers about how many pills he received or how much money he spent. Some claim that, after they sold drugs to Blubaugh, he kept them and gave police non-narcotic substitutes.
In five cases, Blubaugh turned over to police what they expected to be heroin, but they later learned it was a non-narcotic look-alike. Others claim that Blubaugh paid them less than the amounts he told police he had paid.
One defendant told the News he sold Blubaugh four tablets of morphine, a narcotic pain killer, for $200. However, according to police reports, Blubaugh said that he paid $320 for only two tablets of the morphine.
In other cases, defendants claim that Blubaugh told police he had to give some of the purchased drugs back to the sellers as “introduction fees” or for what Blubaugh called a “house hit,” where a drug buyer hands back to the dealer some of the drugs he just purchased as a courtesy. A DEA Special Agent in Detroit with a background in narcotics investigations and use of informants, told the News he had never heard of a “house hit” for any pill deals.
Although the News could not confirm whether or not he hid money from police, court records state that over $10,000 of police-issued buy money passed through Blubaugh’s hands in a 10-week period.
Most defendants in the 14 cases the News investigated claim that Blubaugh hid some of the purchased drugs at the scene of the deal when he bought them. Then, after police released Blubaugh from surveillance, he returned and picked up the hidden pills. Because most of the defendants were friends or acquaintances of Blubaugh’s, the defendants did not question his presence.
Police records show that on multiple occasions, the wire transmitter fitted on Blubaugh malfunctioned or failed to record portions of a conversation. At least twice, police failed to maintain constant visual surveillance of Blubaugh to or from a drug buy. In nearly every instance checked by the News, Blubaugh’s alleged drug buys occurred in a private residence or vehicle out of sight from police officers. In the case of Humphrey, police report losing visual and audio contact with Blubaugh for over an hour.
Blubaugh, who served prison time for forgery, has previous convictions that include multiple counts of domestic violence and charges of assault, obstructing official business and persistent disorderly conduct. Blubaugh turned state’s witness following an arrest in April in Delaware County for possessing heroin. A week after his arrest, the charges were dismissed. Shortly thereafter, Mount Vernon police began using Blubaugh as an informant.
Blubaugh wasn’t the only informant that Mount Vernon police used to gather evidence against 24 people indicted last August by a Knox County special grand jury. The News has identified a 27-year-old Mount Vernon man as “Confidential Informant 13 (CI-13).” He is an ex-convict who turned state’s witness in exchange for the dismissal of felony charges against him for allegedly receiving stolen property and misusing credit cards. He has multiple previous drug and alcohol-related convictions and has served prison time for multiple counts of forgery.
Records show that CI-13 is the sole eyewitness in charges against Louis and Lori Vernon, two of the 24 who were indicted. Louis, a 50-year-old paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, and his 40-year-old wife are accused of selling two prescription Oxycontin pills to CI-13 from their home. If convicted, they each face one to five years in prison. The state has filed to seize their home, the site of the alleged drug deal, because it’s within 1,000 feet of a school.
The Vernons claim that CI-13 is a drug addict, and frequently stopped by their house and intimidated them into trading, loaning or giving him drugs. According to court records, on the occasion mentioned in the Vernons’ indictment, CI-13 insisted that the couple take money in exchange for the Oxycontin pills. Both Vernons told the News they felt threatened at the time, and would have done anything to get the informant to leave their property. Shortly after CI-13 was released from police surveillance, the Vernons claim he returned to their house, where they say he left drugs and money in his hat to hide from police.
Louis Vernon also told the News that the pills he gave to CI-13 are not the same pills that CI-13 turned over to police. The News obtained a prescription record that Vernon claimed is his, and compared its description of the prescribed drugs with the description of the drugs in the police lab report that CI-13 claimed came from the Vernons. The descriptions don’t match. The color and dosage of the drugs in Vernon’s supposed prescription are different than those in the police lab report.
The Vernons are scheduled for a jury trial later this month. Punches is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 25, and Humphrey and Schaade are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 15. Each face six to 18 months in prison and fines of up to $5,000.
Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher declined to comment on ongoing cases, and messages to Mount Vernon Police Chief Mike Merrilees were not returned.
