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Jury: Police Negligence Played Role In Informant's Death

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

TAMPA - Police negligence contributed to drug informant Rachel Hoffman's death, a grand jury said today.

Hoffman, a 23-year-old graduate of Countryside High School in Clearwater, was fatally shot in May while helping Tallahassee police with a narcotics investigation.

The grand jury recommended Tallahassee police should discipline the officers participating in the case and change procedures and policies on the use of informants. The panel also indicted Andrea Green, 25, and Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, on first-degree murder charges.

The men were arrested shortly after Hoffman's killing.

State Attorney Willie Meggs told the Tallahassee Democrat that he likely would seek the death penalty.

In response to the grand jury report, city officials said in a statement that police already have taken some of the steps the panel recommended, including the temporary suspension of using informants in narcotics operations.

Hoffman's friend Ed Sonnenschein, 53, of Tallahassee, said she might have sold marijuana but she was a great person who didn't deserve to die.

The jury's finding today pleased him. He said the officers should be held accountable.

"They should be fired," he said. "They should be prosecuted."

Sonnenschein said Hoffman was fun and had a great sense of humor, and that when he first met her, it was like he had known her for 10 or 20 years.

"Sadly, she had that one youth problem – thinking that you're invincible and know it all," he said.

Before the drug deal that led to Hoffman's death, she called investigators to tell them the location of the meeting had changed. Investigators explicitly told her to stay at the park location set up by narcotics officers, Tallahassee police spokesman David McCranie said in May. Instead, McCranie said, Hoffman hung up.

Hoffman violated protocol when she left the location secured by police for the deal, McCranie said.

Police never saw her alive. Her body was found in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee.

After her death, Tallahassee police defended their use of Hoffman as a confidential informant. Her family and friends said police put an unprepared young woman into a dangerous situation.

The undercover operation began when Hoffman agreed to work with police after being arrested on several drug charges, including possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and possession with intent to sell ecstasy.

Hoffman appeared to make a good informant because she was 23, mature and an intelligent college graduate who police thought would follow directions well, McCranie said.

She was the one who suggested to police that they investigate Green and Bradshaw, McCranie said.

Hoffman agreed to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun as part of the police investigation, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Legal counsel and the State Attorney's Office weren't consulted when Hoffman became a confidential informant. Police don't routinely speak with the state attorney's office about such things unless the arrest violates a person's probation, McCranie said in May.

He also said Tallahassee police don't need to pressure anyone into becoming an informant, because so many people offer to do so after they have been arrested.

About 800 friends and family members gathered in May for Hoffman's funeral service.

"She packed a lot of life in her 23 years," her father, Irv Hoffman, said at the time. "And I wish I was more like her, celebrating life."

Information from The Associated Press and Tribune archives was used in this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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