[Infowarrior] - Crimes by air marshals raise questions about hiring

[Richard Forno]

Crimes by air marshals raise questions about hiring

By Michael Grabell, ProPublica

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-12-air-marshals_N.htm

Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport  
security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And  
for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the  
country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the  
golden badge."

Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young  
boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures  
of him naked and sexually abused him.

AIR MARSHAL SURVEY: Download the complete results (PDF)

And when Brian "Cooter" Phelps wanted his ex-wife to disappear, he  
called a fellow air marshal and tried to hire a hit man nicknamed "the  
Crucifixer."

Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been  
charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of  
misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica, a non-profit journalism  
organization, has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic  
violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle  
explosives from Afghanistan.

The Federal Air Marshal Service presents the image of an elite  
undercover force charged with making split-second decisions that could  
mean the difference between stopping a terrorist and shooting an  
innocent passenger.

But an examination of police reports, court records, government  
reports, memos and e-mails shows that 18 air marshals have been  
charged with felonies, including at least three who were hired despite  
prior criminal records or being fired from law enforcement jobs. A  
fourth air marshal was hired while under FBI investigation. Another  
stayed on the job despite alarming a flight attendant with his behavior.

This spring, after U.S. embassies, airlines and foreign police  
agencies complained about air marshal misconduct overseas, the agency  
director dispatched supervisors on international missions.

 From 33 to 3,000

Before 9/11, the Air Marshal Service was a nearly forgotten force of  
33 agents with a $4.4 million annual budget. Now housed in the  
Transportation Security Administration, the agency has a $786 million  
budget and an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 air marshals, although the  
official number is classified.

Only a fraction of them have been charged with crimes, and some degree  
of misconduct occurs at all law enforcement agencies. But for air  
marshals, the stakes are uniquely high. Their beat is a confined cabin  
with hundreds of passengers in firing range. There are no calls for  
backup at 30,000 feet, putting a premium on sound judgment and swift  
action.

Since 9/11, air marshals have taken bribes, committed bank fraud,  
hired an escort while on layover and doctored hotel receipts to pad  
expenses, records show. They've been found sleeping on planes and lost  
the travel documents of U.S. diplomats while on a whiskey-tasting trip  
in Scotland.

The Air Marshal Service says it has the highest firearms qualification  
standard among federal law enforcement agencies. Yet police and court  
records show some marshals have used their weapons imprudently:

In 2003, a New York air marshal pulled his gun in a dispute over a  
parking space. Another failed to turn over his ammunition on an  
international trip, as required by diplomatic agreements, and was  
detained by Israeli airport security in 2004. That same year, a Las  
Vegas air marshal "discharged" his gun in a hotel room, penetrating a  
wall and shattering a mirror. In April, a Phoenix air marshal fired  
his during a fight outside a bar.

Still another left his handgun in the plane's lavatory in 2001,  
according to court papers. He realized it was missing only after a  
teenager found it.

Robert Bray, director of the Air Marshal Service, says the misconduct  
cases don't represent the exemplary work done by the vast majority of  
air marshals.

"We can reassure the public that these dedicated professionals go out  
there every day and put their lives on the line to make sure that  
everyone is safe," Bray says. "I don't want them to be tarred by … a  
few allegations from a few years ago."

Bray and other officials declined to discuss specific cases, citing  
privacy laws.

Under government policies, air marshals found guilty of felonies were  
fired or forced to resign. But 10 air marshals convicted of  
misdemeanors, mostly drunken driving, were allowed to keep their jobs.  
And even after notice that background checks were poor, the agency  
failed to root out air marshals with troubled pasts before they  
committed felonies.

Current and former air marshals say the misconduct cases show that the  
agency continues to struggle with policing its own ranks, a problem  
that surfaced in its post-9/11 buildup. Since then, the service has  
had three leaders, been moved four times to different parent agencies  
and been blasted by Congress for, among other things, failing to cover  
enough flights and enforcing a dress code that many air marshals felt  
blew their cover.

Don Strange, the former special agent in charge of the Atlanta office  
and a finalist to lead the agency in 2006, says turmoil and low morale  
have led good air marshals to quit and made it harder for managers to  
maintain the highest standards.

"It starts with the urgency (to hire and train recruits) in a  
ridiculous amount of time," he says. "Things start to spin out of  
control."

Recruiting rush

Under heavy congressional pressure, the government rushed to hire  
thousands of air marshals after 9/11. Partly motivated by enduring  
images of planes hitting the World Trade Center, the Pentagon aflame  
and a charred Pennsylvania field, 200,000 applied. With limited spots,  
the Air Marshal Service had an acceptance rate of about one in 40 —  
four times as tough as Harvard's.

"We're getting the cream of the crop," then-TSA spokesman David  
Steigman told reporters. "The people who are going into the air  
marshal program are the best of the best."

But that wasn't necessarily the case.

Shortly after joining the agency, three air marshals were indicted in  
corruption investigations at their former police departments. One,  
Louis Pirani, had been hired in early 2002, despite being under FBI  
investigation for months on suspicion of skimming profits from drug  
couriers as a sheriff's deputy in Arkansas. He eventually was  
convicted and went to prison for lying to investigators.

Just two weeks after joining the air marshals in April 2002, Shawn  
Nguyen filed for bankruptcy, claiming $200,000 in debts. Three years  
later, the former narcotics officer began carrying cash and cocaine  
past airport security for a man he knew as a drug trafficker, but  
who'd already turned to the FBI.

"I don't care what's in the [expletive] package, you know what I mean?  
Just tell me how much it is and what I'm getting in money," Nguyen  
told the informant in a recorded conversation recounted in court  
records. "I'm the man with the golden badge." Nguyen was sentenced to  
seven years in prison.

Before becoming an air marshal, Brian Phelps had worked at five small  
police departments in Alabama, but none for more than a year. He was  
fired from the job he held longest for losing his temper and acting  
"irrationally" before thinking things through, prosecutors said. He  
quit another job in lieu of being fired for misconduct while on duty,  
says Mayor Paula Phillips of Douglas, Ala.

In 2005, Phelps, known as "Cooter" among fellow air marshals, told a  
colleague that he wanted to see his wife's picture on a milk carton,  
court transcripts say. He asked the air marshal, who'd worked in  
Chicago's housing projects, whether he knew of anyone who could help.

The colleague said he did: The Crucifixer. The colleague told the Air  
Marshal Service, and after numerous contacts with FBI agents posing as  
hit men, Phelps was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Another air marshal, David Kellerman, was arrested on felony charges  
for dealing in stolen property in 1983 and for carrying a concealed  
weapon in 1990. Although judgment was withheld in both cases,  
Kellerman was sentenced each time to probation, according to Florida  
Department of Law Enforcement records.

In September, Kellerman — a Green Beret and Purple Heart recipient —  
was sentenced to 27 months in prison after being caught hiding a cache  
of weapons that included AK-47s and a grenade launcher stolen while he  
was on leave for a military tour in Afghanistan. Kellerman told  
investigators he was bringing back training aids for his job as an air  
marshal firearms instructor.

Background checks

Because air marshals receive top-secret security clearances,  
background checks are supposed to include criminal history searches  
going back 10 years, credit reports and interviews with relatives,  
neighbors and employers. Checks are conducted by the federal Office of  
Personnel Management, a separate agency, which forwards results to the  
Air Marshal Service.

Kellerman's charges predated the 10-year check period. But in Phelps'  
case, three officials — Justice Ashley, former assistant police chief  
in Guntersville, Ala.; Chad Long, the current Douglas police chief,  
and Phillips — say they couldn't recall the air marshals contacting  
anyone to make a background check. It's unclear whether Pirani's FBI  
scrutiny and Nguyen's bankruptcy were missed or disregarded.

A 2004 report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector  
general also flagged gaps in the background checks. The report cited  
504 applicants who were recommended for hire and awaiting offers,  
noting that nearly a third had potentially disqualifying problems,  
including past arrests, bankruptcies or disciplinary problems.

"Many (air marshals) were granted access to classified information  
after displaying questionable judgment, irresponsibility and  
emotionally unstable behavior," the report said.

This summer, after a Houston TV station reported that three air  
marshals had been charged with drunken driving, including one with a  
prior DWI conviction, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, grilled TSA Administrator  
Kip Hawley at a congressional hearing.

In a subsequent letter to Poe, Hawley said that 28 air marshals had  
been hired with misdemeanors on their records, and nine more kept  
their jobs after a drunken-driving conviction.

TSA policies state that employees who drive drunk "demonstrate a  
disregard for TSA's mission" and raise questions about their ability  
to deal with security threats. Yet the policy allows drunken driving  
to be punished with a letter of reprimand, one of the lowest penalties.

By comparison, the FBI mandates at least a 30-day suspension without  
pay for drunken driving. Although other federal police agencies  
generally allow for flexibility in discipline, many big-city  
departments, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, mandate a  
suspension or loss of pay for a first offense.

"It's more serious than a letter saying, 'Don't do it again, try to do  
better,' " Poe said in an interview. "I don't think a person should  
have a criminal record and keep their job with the Air Marshal Service  
— including a DWI."

The flying public agrees. In a national survey for ProPublica  
conducted by Harris Interactive, 86% of those who'd taken a commercial  
flight in the past year said it was unacceptable for someone convicted  
of driving under the influence to become an air marshal.

No office compiles uniform statistics on arrests of federal law  
officers, making it difficult to compare agencies. The 2004 inspector  
general's report found 753 documented cases of misconduct by air  
marshals over 20 months, with offenses from sleeping on duty to  
flunking drug tests.

After the report, the agency said it tightened its background  
procedures. When misconduct occurred, the agency said, it had acted  
"swiftly and decisively," terminating 101 air marshals over two years  
and taking resignations from 32 others.

But problems continued — Kellerman, Phelps and Nguyen all committed  
their crimes after the 2004 report. The service declined to say what's  
been done since to check for cases that fell through the cracks.

Hiring standards erode

Over the years, the service has loosened some hiring practices:

• In 2002, the agency decided that recruits no longer had to pass a  
rigorous firearms test requiring them to prove speed and accuracy in  
close quarters similar to an airplane. The test is still used in  
training but is no longer a hiring qualification.

• In late 2005, the agency began hiring TSA screeners, new college  
grads and others with no law enforcement experience. The change  
departed from practice during the 9/11 ramp-up, when air marshals  
almost uniformly were chosen from law enforcement, such as the Border  
Patrol, federal Bureau of Prisons and police and sheriff's departments.

• Two years ago, officials suspended a requirement that air marshals  
pass a written psychological test and an interview with a psychologist  
or psychiatrist. Bray, the director, says the changes did not lower  
hiring standards and that it's unfair to suggest a TSA screener or a  
recent college grad could not be up to par after training.

The Air Marshal Service still has the highest standard for shooting  
accuracy among federal police agencies, he says.

In the ProPublica survey, 87% said air marshals should be required to  
pass a psychological stress test, and 77% said they should have prior  
experience in law enforcement.

Two cases show why psychological testing might be valuable.

Orlando air marshal Marcus Rogozinski was on a mission from New York  
to Dallas in 2006 when he walked to the galley and showed a flight  
attendant a book with some pictures of blue crystals, his supervisor,  
Richard Lozada, wrote in an e-mail introduced at a competency hearing

If she had good thoughts, Rogozinski told her, the water could be  
turned clear, Lozada recounted. But if she had bad thoughts, it would  
turn murky.

When Rogozinski went to the lavatory, the alarmed flight attendant  
walked back to his partner, Paul Steward.

"I can't believe he is able to carry a gun!" she said, according to an  
account written by Steward.

In 2007, another flight attendant complained that Rogozinski "was  
talking about all kinds of crazy stuff like outer space," according to  
a memo from air marshal David Cameron.

"No (air marshal) should have to pay more attention to their partner  
than to the passengers," Cameron wrote. Afterward, Rogozinski failed a  
psych exam and was put on leave.

In June, Rogozinski was convicted of bank fraud for trying to cash a  
$10.9 million check from a woman he said he believed was Cambodian  
royalty. The money, he told prosecutors, was partial settlement for a  
"personal lawsuit" after he was scratched by the woman's cat.

Then there's the case of Michael McGowan, who joined the air marshals  
after 9/11. Before he was sentenced to a sex-offenders unit in 2006,  
his lawyer pleaded with a judge for help for his client. "He is taking  
the position 'I have a serious problem, I'm sick,' " said attorney  
Joel Weiss, according to a court transcript.

McGowan had been caught two years earlier trying to buy pornography of  
children as young as 7 over the Internet. Investigators discovered  
he'd been molesting a Texas boy since 2002 and had enticed the boy by  
saying he was staying at a nearby hotel on air marshal business.

Even after his conviction, court records show, McGowan called the boy  
from prison and engaged him in sexual conversations.

'Impact on our reputation'

Earlier this year, a rash of complaints about air marshal misconduct  
on overseas missions set off new alarms.

The agency would not provide details of the incidents. But ProPublica  
obtained an April 15 internal memo from Dana Brown, then director of  
the Air Marshal Service, warning the rank and file that the behavior  
threatened to create diplomatic problems for the agency on  
international routes, "some of the most important we fly."

"In foreign countries, some have behaved in a manner that may  
jeopardize our ability to continue to operate effectively," Brown  
wrote. "The negative impact on our reputation and that of the American  
government has the potential to cause significant harm."

To put a stop to it, Brown ordered "Quality Assurance Teams" of  
supervisors to monitor air marshals on international missions and act  
as liaisons with host countries.

"These are highly trained federal air marshals with guns on planes. If  
they need chaperones, then we're all in serious trouble," says P.  
Jeffrey Black, a Las Vegas air marshal who in the past has testified  
before Congress about agency policies.

Bray says the agency was not able to substantiate the allegations of  
overseas misconduct and that Brown was simply being proactive.

Black says the job shouldn't be entry-level. New hires need the  
experience and judgment learned from making decisions on the street,  
he says.

Poe, a former judge and prosecutor who sits on the House aviation  
subcommittee, says the unique nature of the job demands the highest  
recruiting standards. He says he wants to address the issue of air  
marshal misconduct further when the new Congress is seated next year.

Air marshals "all have to be of high quality, not most of them," Poe  
says. "We can't take a chance that they will make a mistake."

Six of Cincinnati air marshal David Slaughter's colleagues wrote  
character references for him after his arrest in 2006, according to  
court records.

"A man of impeccable character," wrote one. "An outstanding employee."  
"Polite," wrote another. "His character around the office is one of  
example." "Dave's demeanor and professionalism reflect favorably on  
the field office as well as the agency as a whole."

Slaughter was convicted of abducting a female escort during a July  
2006 layover in the Washington, D.C., area.

In an interview, he said he hired the escort because he was having  
marital problems and wanted a woman's perspective. As they talked  
about how to spend their time, he went into the bedroom of his hotel  
suite and returned with his gun and handcuffs. The woman tried to  
flee, but he prevented her from leaving and unplugged the phone,  
prosecutors said.

The two struggled, and when the woman got the door open, Slaughter  
pinned her to the ground, held her in a chokehold and handcuffed her,  
according to prosecutors and the woman, Cherith Zorbas.

Despite his colleagues' support, Slaughter lost his job and got 15  
days in jail. Zorbas called the outcome "horrific" and said the public  
should be scared.

"He's the only one on an airplane with a freakin' weapon," she said,  
"and he's supposed to have it to be protecting us."

Contributing: Jamie Wilson of ProPublica