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'G' for Gotti.'G' for Greene.'G' is for G-Men
Who Go In Harm's Way...
THE EDDIE MAGNUSON STORY
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'G' for Gotti.'G' for Greene.In October, 1995 a binding Hearing was held to determine the facts behind S/A Magnuson's complaints. Eddie's irrefutable defenders were people whose Constitutional loyalty to Truth exposed them to serious risk and job-insecurity by testifying honestly. The meager team on the side of Truth out-balanced "Greene and his gang" who repeatedly contradicted each other. During the Hearing one of the most impressive witnesses whom the judge appeared awed by his DEA procedural and administrative knowledge, SAC John Sutton, was asked if he was calling D/A Greene a liar. SAC Sutton unhesitatingly replied affirmatively. When asked to provide other instances where he felt Greene had lied, SAC Sutton began a litany. The Executive Secretary for Greene's Career Board, Sidney Hayakawa, swore the minutes of a CB meeting he recorded, and which Greene stated were inaccurate, were indeed accurate...word-for-word. United States Congressman William Clay transmitted two lengthy appeals to DEA begging for compassion. As one agent DEA Watch interviewed described them: DEA's abbreviated response to Clay appeared to be callously generic, form-letter rejections.
It has occasionally proven advantageous in some court cases involving criminal husband and wife teams for prosecutors to subject a wife to a wee bit of stress in order to get the husband to confess his sins. It is rare, indeed almost unheard of, for senior law enforcement executives to subject a true-blue law enforcement wife, who's husband never committed an administrative indiscretion let alone a crime, to unnecessary hostility. In the Magnuson case DEA reportedly ignored medical reports, even the concerns of a DEA doctor, by insisting that Mrs. Magnuson be deposed with personal questions about her health. When DEA was directed to provide a counselor for S/A Magnuson's EEO complaint the counselor selected by DEA lived over 1,000 miles away. When the counselor asked Greene for an interview to explain DEA management's position in the Magnuson' case, Greene directed his office to require all questions to be submitted in writing... to which most were never answered. Greene's apparent goal was to force S/A Magnuson to withdraw his EEO complaint, hardship requests and capitulate. But Mrs. Magnuson, although physically depleted after months of stress and an uncertain future, proved to be every bit the fighter her husband is widely respected for. She endured the deposition but required intensive treatment afterward. When told about Mrs. Magnuson's condition being worse Greene's reported reaction was a shoulder shrug followed by non-acquiescence to DEA lawyer's who advised compromise. John Gotti, the man often portrayed as Sin itself, would never have sanctioned the suffering and abusive pain inflicted on Eddie... let alone a DEA wife. In the minds of many former DEA agents, Stephen Greene crossed a line John Gotti never would have.
Despite winning what amounted to a few months back pay, in the end Eddie and his family, particularly Mrs. Magnuson lost what amounts to a lifetime. Eddie Magnuson gave his life not just to DEA but to every citizen who wants a drug and crime-free America. As one DEA agent put it,"Agents like Eddie who have the intestinal fortitude to take on the big boys like John Gotti are a special breed. They have unique personalities. They don't ask for much and they can get the job done with very little. The problem is not with agents like Eddie. The problem is with administrators who don't understand and don't care about them. When you put guys like Gotti on one scale and some of the guys who've been running DEA on another scale, one side weighs heavier on the side of respect for the agent.... and that side ain't DEA management!" A second agent put it another way,"DEA agents should not have to fear their senior management more than they fear the drug dealer. But in the last few years that's what the agent's life boils down to... fear and betrayal not from outside the agency but from above." All told, Ed Magnuson submitted a total of nine valid hardship requests over a three year period. Three were never replied to directly. All were rejected for a variety or reasons no other agent was subjected to. One was rejected simply because of language.... in D/A Greene's view it failed to openly state in two words,"life threatening", what it inferred, implied and clinically referenced in unmistakably clear text. In another instance, because D/A Greene reneged on a pre-agreed settlement he was eventually asked by the MSPB judge to attend a compromise meeting so to prevent him from using any excuse to claim ignorance, lack of knowledge or deny that he agreed to the conclusions reached. The dark side of Stephen Greene was not new to Ed Magnuson. A few years back when he and Ed worked out of the same office, Greene made a comment that shook Eddie. Commenting on the vintage 1976 Lincoln Eddie used for carpooling, Greene was heard stating,"No self-respecting white man would be seen driving a car like that." A joke? A racial slur? Eddie would be the first to admit that even he didn't know how to interpret Greene's statement. What he can conclusively demonstrate is that some of his problems getting DEA managers to support him could be linked to his once testifying at a trial involving former Special Agent,"Stuey" Stromfield, whose reports revealed high-level racism in DEA. Many, many of the details of Eddie Magnuson's victimization were not and could not be reported in the limited computer space available for this DEA Watch report. But the well-documented persecution of Eddie Magnuson and the fascinating victories he helped earn for the Drug Enforcement Administration will one day be required reading by future DEA cadets. The Eddie Magnuson story, and the stories of the men and women who donated, indeed risked, their lives for the security of our Nation are no less admirable and historically relevant than the ordeals that confronted early-American pioneers. Despite DEA management's apparent program to completely replace its entire Special Agent personnel roster in the next three to five years, the Magnuson story will forever be passed on through this forum, by word-of-mouth, and hopefully through management training manuals on how not to mistreat the men and women who voluntarily take on the tough cases. Eddie Magnuson never received even a formal 'Thank You' for his frugal and tireless work to arrest John Gotti.(Magnuson spent less than $10,000 on his successful investigation.) But, as long as new generations of DEA agents learn about his outstanding leadership, devoted work ethic and unblemished career American streets will be all the safer.
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