special
feature
the
Sunday
doily
by
imark
di ien
A
Number 44 Night Editor: Larry Lempert
Sunday, February 21, 1971
TERRY BERNAY
AND THE ARGUS
Undercover
narc:
Get
It began last September without at-
tracting much attention. There was
little reason to suspect the newcomer
at first. His manner was certainly dif-
ferent - they say now they should
have recognized he didn't belong -
but there was nothing conspicuous to
give Terry away. After they realized
what had happened, though, it would
be too late. Two of their homes would
be the subject of the drug raid and
five of the group would be facing drug
charges.
* * * *
CHRISTOPHER Switzenberger s a t
,back in the chair in his Detroit
office. He has been a policeman for
a long time, and for him there is a
simple logic behind enforcing drug
laws: "If the laws exist, they must be
sience. If he and his partners do well,
they can't expect to stay in a town
more than a year. By then, they
should have made contacts on the
local drug market, "scored", served
warrants and testified in court
against their former benefactors.
Then, their cover gone, they're off to
another town.
Terry was once a familiar figure in
the Ann Arbor street community. Now
he is gone, except for the court ap-
pearances he'll make in March
against Doug Connelley, Nine For-
rester, Wilson Tanner, Michael Po-
lich and Cheryl R a s c h. He has
done his job well - five is quite a
catch for one undercover agent work-
ing alone.
Drifting in with the yearly influx
- the first time they had been "bust-
ed."
Most were runaways in some sense
of the word. Doug, who the records
say is 18, ran away from home in
Chelsea, Mich. six years ago and even-
tually settled in Ann Arbor. Leslie
said she was from the East and about
the same age as Doug. She was un-
happy at home and found it hard to
stay in any one place very long, so
periodically she would pick up and
seek another community. Like t h e
others, she would occasionally hear
from her parents - perhaps some
money would come to help see her
through a difficult time - but except
for the others in the collective, she
was alone.
Though most of the group w e r e
ting 'thE
Following his usual procedure, Ter-
ry saved up h i s information while
sending the evidence to Lansing, un-
til he had "scored" as many times as
he thought possible, and, after con-
sultation with Ann Arbor Police De-
tective Richard Anderson, secured the
warrants on the morning of Jan. 19. It
had been getting rather difficult for
Terry among the people around the
Argus house. He would only come t
buy, where etiquette demanded he al-
so sample. Several of Terry's ac-
quaintances at the house say t h a t
during his visits he would often smoke
marijuana with them and would
sometimes sell drugs he had to others.
State police say this is impossible;
that any undercover agent would be
fired if he sold or sampled the drugs
he acquired. T h e y say during the
times he is accused of smoking mari-
juana, he was probably just "faking
it."
* * * *~
T CAME quickly. Two cars and a van
broug;ht 15 police officers to 1023
Church St. There were three uniform-
ed Ann Arbor patrolmen, eight plain-
clothes detectives and four troopers
from the Michigan State Police (in-
cluding Terry). The same procedure
was followed at both houses: Terry
would ask to speak to one of the five
people mentioned in t h e warrants.
After entering, Terry would feign an-
other attempted purchase from the
persons named so he could find out
if they were present. At the Church
St. house, witnesses say it happened
this way:
From about 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. that
day, police were present at their
house. Terry asked for Sophie, who
he knew lived there. After entering,
he went up to the second floor where
her room was. It wasn't really a com-
mune at 1023 Church, but there was
only one student among the people
who lived there off-and-on. Like the
soon-to-be visited residents of the Ar-
gus house, they were young and
afraid. When the police followed Ter-
ry in after he radioed the party from
the upstairs bathroom, the six people
present were not alarmed when the
front door was banged open loudly.
As one resident put it, "we liked to
have fun a n d it was usually noisy
around here."
After the police left with their six
suspects for t h e Argus house, 1023
Church was a mess. Clothes and furn-
ishings were strewn about in the same
way they would be found later at the
Argus after the raid there. Those ar-
rested would claim the disorder was
wrought by the police. They said the
police had no right to search their
homes and consiscate materials with-
out search warrants. The police and
the mayor would say they had done
nothing beyond the bounds of the law.
But that wasn't really the story.be-
hind what happened. Of the 15 peo-
ple arrested during that two-day per-
iod, ten would be set free. The mater-
ials confiscated w o u 1 d be returned,
big
the penalty for possessionc
juana from a felony to a mis
or?
"Just coincidence," said Ch
ny after the raid. But the fe
pressed by some conservative
liberalized marijuana 1 a w
brought pressure for a "cra
Republican candidates f oi
Robert Harris' job were stro
vocating tighter reins on d
The mayor was not notifie
raid until after it had taken
The day after the arrests,
ple were arraigned. Michael
name by which Michael Po
pushers'
of maxi- FOR THOSE arrested that day, the
;demean- memory fades slowly. The open
talk of paranoia gets translated into
ief Kras- more precautions lest a n e w Terry
eling ex- makes his way into the community.
s against Somber looks greet suspicious visitors
vs h a d while a new battle faces the Argus
clsdown." collective.
r Mayor Taxes on the house, which they are
)ngly ad- in the process of buying, have gone up
drug use. sharply, and city inspectors threaten
d of the action against them unless they can
place. show that recent electrical work was
done by an approved "official" con-
five peo- tractor. Their wiring was done by a
1 P, (the friend.
A
-C
licht was
* #
enforced and our job is to catch those
who disobey." Switzerberger is a
Lieutenant Detective with the Michi-
gan State Police yet, like many others,
seldom wears a uniform. The badge
and a sheathed pistol are the o n 1 y
things that set him off from others.
The lieutenant doesn't use his own
plain clothes disguise to full advant-
age. As part of the nucleus of the
Michigan State Police Intelligence
Bureau, he directs other men in
plainclothes. These are younger men,
men with ambition. And long h a i r.
And mod clothes. They are trained to
catch the drug users by buying drugs
from them - under laws that can
put the sellers in prison for 20 years.
Among the best at doing this is
Trooper Terry Bernay. "One of our
better agents," says the lieutenant.
Terry has excelled in a specialty
where success is measured by tran-
of youth, it was easy for Terry to
feign a background. By September of
1970, Terry, though new to narcotics
work, would be well assimilated into
the Ann Arbor community. Within.
a month, he would start "scoring."
"THAT'S REALLY bogue," the girl
said, looking at her friend. He had
pulled out a pipe, and after assuring
the group standing around that it was
only tobacco, he lit up. The nervous-
ness was to be excused - they were
standing just outside the Ann Arbor
police station, waiting for friends
that had been arrested on drug
charges'. Every so often, 'a n o t h e r
youth would come out the door, then,
sensing freedom, he w o u 1 d run to
greet his friends. They embrace, cry
a bit and sputter excited fragments
and queries about what had just hap-
pened. For many of them it was new
about the age to be graduating from
high school, classroom education had
lost whatever meaning it had once
held for them. The Argus was their
education now - an education they
shared as their numbers changed with
their traveling. Boston, San Francis-
co, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Ann
Arbor: all places where they could
find others like them, places where
there were friendly havens. Such a
place was the Argus house, home of
an underground newspaper and the
six people of the collective that pub-
lishes it.
The homes surrounding the Argus
house are old and dreary. Occasional-
ly one or two will breathe their last
and an Ann Arbor corporation will
raise brick and concrete cubicles in
place of the sagging frames. Students
will live in these places - these mod-
ern apartments - much as a visiting
owner would; in one season, out the
next. Flowing with the tide of their
education while the counter-culture
holds forth across at the Argus house.
At times old and solemn, picturing
themselves much like the revolution-
aries that adorn their walls; at times
the youthful model of perpetual nai-
vete. Innocent enough to accept an
awkward and ,obvious Terry Bernay
into their midst, yet somberly noting
later the failure was "a lapse" in their
known) was thought to h a v e le'ft
town. Unlike others who feared they
were about to be served with war-
rants, he stayed at a friend's house.
The detectives came for him the same
day. Bill Tanner was arrested outside
the police station t h a t night while
awaiting word about the others. Nina
was arrested while standing outside
the courtroom where her friends were
being arraigned.
"We were trying to help relations
between the kids and police and then
BACK INSIDE Michigan State Police
headquarters in Detroit there is
a recruiting poster prominently dis-
played. Two grim figures f i 1 1 the
bright blue uniforms. In t-h e fore-
ground, the man has a white face.
Standing behind him is a black one
- but not too black - just g r e y
enough so you know the force doesn't ;
discriminate. The same features com-
pose each figure and beneath them is
the legend, "Men With a Future."
Intelligence Sgt. Jim Mull enters
Chris' office with photostat clippings
of articles written about the Argus
raid. L i k e the other "intelligence"
agencies, they keep up-to-date files
of all radical and underground news-
papers, including the Argus. "The ar-
ticles go right off mentioning o u r
cars and their colors," complains Jim.
"We'd rather not publicize the fact,
that we h a v e undercover agents,"
Chris explains. Jim was angry. "That's
a good way to get one of our guys
killed."
And one supposes he's right. There
have been "narcs" killed lately in the
line of duty exposing users and sellers
of marijuana. And there have been
users and sellers likewise murdered
by heroin addicts searching for the
answer to their need. But heroin is
syndicate-run, Jim explains, so the
FBI handles it.
LATELY THERE h a v e been other
drug raids carried out by the Ann
Photos Iy
Jim Jud(,ki~s
"revolutionary organization" a n d
locking their front door with boards
bolted across its back. After raiding
the Argus and another house con-
taining other "community" members,
Jan. 19, Ann Arbor Police Chief Wal-
ter Krasny said he was convinced he
had arrested "the big pushers."
SIDE FROM Terry's preparation,
s' , ..
.. x f; w: