Defense attorney accuses feds of using doctored evidence to indict

Over a year after a federal indictment and civil injunction shuttered a Nederland fireworks store and attached chemical sales establishment, prosecutors have agreed to a permanent injunction allowing the businesses to again open to the public.

July 13, 2020, in a U.S. District Court civil action filed under seal, federal prosecutors alleged Jake Ellis Daughtry, Joseph Ellis Daughtry, Sandra Miller Daughtry and Kip William Daughtry, owners and operators of Jake’s Fireworks in Nederland, utilized the mom-and-pop popper shop as a “front for illegal drug distribution” for the business’ side-hustle, Right Price Chemicals (RPC).

“From their modest-looking roadside operation,” the complaint describes, the defendants distributed 1,4 butanediol (“BDO,” a drug akin to the date-rape drug GHB, the feds describe), against the peace and dignity of the community. The complaint states that, although the chemical is legally used as a floor stripper and possesses legitimate use for industrial cleaning, a “not widely known” use for the chemical is recreational drugging. “Jake’s Fireworks is no different than any crack house or drug hotel. Behind the simple façade of Jake’s Fireworks, Defendants run a nation-wide drug distribution network selling what employees of Jake’s call ‘liquid gold.’”

For the defendants’ alleged crimes, however, the government wanted to secure a less liquid monetary commodity – cash. Specifically, the penalties the federal attorneys cited were “the greater of $374,763 or two times the gross receipts, either known or estimated, that were derived from each violation.” Taking a stab at a sales estimate the government was comfortable with, the claim for civil penalties alleged that RPC, “which is concealed within the structure of Jake’s Fireworks, has fulfilled several thousand orders of the illegal drug to at least 48 states, which totaled millions of dollars, at the expense of the general public.” Keeping the math simple, though, the government was willing to take $374,763 for each identifiable instance of “knowingly operating a place for the purpose of distributing controlled substances,” and the same for each count of “managing or controlling a place and knowingly profiting from and making it available for distribution of controlled substances.”

The feds also wanted RPC and Jake’s Fireworks permanently enjoined from doing business. Sept. 20, the federal attorneys on the case filed an agreed action that bore little resemblance to the complaint made against the defendants in 2020.

“The parties have agreed to resolve this pending civil matter,” the U.S. attorney wrote. “The parties have conferred and have agreed, without any party making any admission to any other party, to settle this dispute through entry of an agreed permanent injunction.”

In exchange for the defendants taking BDO off the sales menu, the federal civil case was dropped on Sept. 20 and removed from the court docket.

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Attorneys representing the civil defendants, and added named associates, in the criminal case lodged during the same 2020 timeframe are likewise looking to clear the court docket for persons they claim are falsely accused, and are now offering expert testimony to the court that contends the federal prosecutors utilized doctored evidence to secure the indictments against the fireworks store crew.

In the 24-count indictment secured by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, the government is charging nine defendants connected to Jake’s Fireworks and RPC with a slew of criminal infractions: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance analogue; Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of a date rape drug over the internet to an unauthorized purchaser; Maintaining a drug-involved premises; Possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance analogue; and Money Laundering. If convicted, each defendant faces in excess of 20 years in federal prison, and a joint monetary judgment debt of $4.5 million.

Always maintaining innocence on behalf of the fireworks store defendants, defense attorneys have now called into question the federal prosecutors’ methods of securing the indictment against the local business operators. In a filing made by attorney Dustin Galmor on Sept. 22, the defense is requesting to review grand jury transcripts now that evidence produced by prosecutors has been found to have been manipulated by an expert reviewer.

“Defendant believes that false or misleading matters were presented to the grand jury in order to persuade the grand jury to indict Defendant herein,” the filing reads. “Specifically, there is evidence to suggest the Government’s possible use of fabricated evidence resulting in a violation of (defendant’s) Fifth Amendment right to an independent and unbiased grand jury.”

According to Galmor, in reviewing discovery, the defense team began to discover that a number of emails provided by the government were fabricated. Multiple emails between a chemical distributor and Right Price Chemicals were altered, adding apparently incriminating attachments and notes to otherwise harmless correspondence.

“A review of the real (undoctored) email shows that the fabricated SDS sheet was not part of the original bill,” the filing explains further. “The fabricated SDS sheet strangely goes to page 10 of 6. It also surprisingly has information related to human consumption and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). A standard SDS sheet would not contain that type of information.

“The fabricated SDS sheet was relied upon in the civil injunction to close Defendant’s businesses and therefore was likely presented to the grand jury.”

Cyoptions LLC Senior Forensic Analyst Christian Mammarella, EnCE, a retired police detective and computer forensic examiner, who is U.S. Secret Service trained and a licensed investigator, underscored the defense team’s suspicions with expert analysis.

“Due to the changes and missing data from the Silver Fern (prosecutorial evidence) production, I cannot validate emails (to) emails,” Mammarella detailed. “Two receiving accounts with metadata received emails without the additional attachments and text within the body of the emails.

“Silver Fern’s own emails show inconsistent changes and do not appear to be legitimate.”

After the defense filing, the prosecution announced the addition of a new attorney on the case. Sept. 27, Christopher T. Rapp was assigned as lead counsel for the United States of America. A judge has yet to rule on the defense’s request to receive grand jury material, and the criminal trial has been reset for a date of Jan. 4, 2022.

Defense attorneys working on the case include Ryan Gertz, Tom Kelley, Charles Alexander McIntosh IV, Cory Crenshaw, Dustin Galmor and Kevin Collins.