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Update: New Details in Cocaine Case Emerge
11/16/09 - 01:08 PM
WMBB News Department
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click for larger image Bay County, Fla:

The federal drug trial of Amy Cooper, the girlfriend of Dr. Michael Reed, is now under way.  A jury was selected from a pool of about 40 people Monday morning.  The 14 member panel, which includes two alternates, consists of eight women and six men.  The trial began Monday afternoon.

Cooper is charged with using a telephone to solicit the sale of a controlled substance, a mixture of cocaine.  She has pleaded not-guilty.

Cooper’s defense doesn’t dispute that she agreed to participate in handing over $30,000 in order to purchase a kilogram of cocaine from co-defendant Hector Melara.  The defense although argues that the exchange would have happened with or without Cooper’s assistance.  The government says Cooper was an aid in the deal.

The Drug Enforcement Agency called a witness to testify about how the wire tapping process works before beginning to play nearly 20 phone conversations.  The calls provide details into the interactions between Melara, Cooper and Reed.  Those conversations indicate that Reed had not shared with Cooper that he was purchasing more than user amounts of cocaine. 

On the day that Cooper is accused of calling Melara, the prosecution says everyone involved in the deal was running late.  That’s when they say Reed asked Cooper for her help.  Cooper then called Melara to ask him to wait for ten minutes because she had people at her home.  During a second phone call she let Melara know that they were gone and he could come over.

The prosecution says that Copper and Reed were purchasing cocaine for personal use once every two weeks.  They say Reed would ask Cooper to test the cocaine for quality since she had been a user for five to six years.

Melara himself is also testifying.  He tells the court that the exchanges of cocaine often happened in the parking lots of businesses such as Home Depot, Winn Dixie and CVS as well as at Reed’s home.  We also learned that Melara was operating a limo service up until his arrest.

Cooper was out of jail on pre-trial release up until last week when she was ordered to turn herself in.  She was found guilty of violating her conditions of release by talking to her boyfriend and co-defendant in the case, Dr. Reed.

Federal prosecutors say Cooper introduced Reed to drugs.  Reed was sentenced to just under five years in prison followed by four years of supervised release.  Reed pleaded guilty in July to cocaine conspiracy and admitted to investing $60,000 for two kilograms of cocaine smuggled in from Belize.

The indictments followed two years of investigation by federal authorities and included a total of eight co-defendants.  After Cooper’s trial is complete there will only be one person who has not yet been sentenced, Hector Melara.  Melara is scheduled to appear in court in December but first he is expected to give testimony about Cooper’s involvement in the conspiracy. 

The other co-defendants learned their fates on Thursday and Friday.  Israel Lerma received the longest sentence, he will spend life in prison.  Rob Lee Young received the shortest with 30 months of time to serve. 

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