Kopbusters revisited

Editor's Note: Some readers may find some language in this story offensive.

The search affidavit used to search a suspected grow house that ended up being a ruse by a previously unknown activist group misidentified an Odessa pastor who delivered a crucial anonymous letter used to justify the search, several sources said.

Odessa City Manager Richard Morton told the Odessa American an OPD officer confused First United Pentecostal Church pastor Terry Pugh for associate police chaplain and First Church of the Nazarene pastor Terry Pierce.

Both Morton and OPD Chief Timothy Burton said the officer, Jesse Garcia, simply made a mistake when he filled out his affidavit asking for a search warrant.

Pugh confirmed he was given the letter and later asked by a woman, who never identified herself, to send it to the police department.

"They put it on our church mailbox," Pugh said. "They told me about it, and they asked me to deliver it to the police ... I (told them I) couldn't make that promise ... They called back and begged me to deliver the letter."

Terry Pierce was incorrectly named in the search affidavit as the man who delivered the unsigned letter, causing supporters of Kopbusters and convicted methamphetamine dealer Yolanda Madden to speculate on Pierce's role and on why the police claimed he sent it.

Pierce had twice denied that he was the one that sent the letter, and suggested last week that the police mixed him up with someone else.

That, Morton said, is exactly what happened. The officer filled out the affidavit and simply wrote the wrong minister's name, he said. Morton said the OPD did nothing wrong.

Pugh's anger seems to be directed at whomever tricked him into taking the false report to the police. Pugh added that he never heard of Yolanda Madden or Kopbusters until he saw the prank reported on TV. He said he believes the woman who called his church and asked him to send the letter was affiliated with the group.

"The police are doing all they can to make things better in our community and for somebody to do something like that, it's a little frustrating," Pugh said. "Someone played on my sentiments ... Had I known that, I would have never been involved in it. I thought I was helping the police catch bad guys."

Pugh said he received a letter addressed simply to "Pastor Terry" before his evening church service Dec. 3. After a woman called him and asked him to send the letter to police, he read the letter and decided to deliver it after church.

He said he delivered the opened envelope otherwise as he received it.

Pugh said he wanted to clear Pierce's name as well as the police department's reputation.

"It put a question mark on Pierce and the police," he said. "I was a little amused by the fact that Pierce was taking a hit, but it made it look like he was lying and the police was lying, and that wasn't right."

Since the hoax, Pugh said he discussed the matter with police, but he didn't elaborate on those discussions.

The house that was raided, at 232 Lotteman Drive, was part of a stunt from Kopbusters, a group that claimed it "set up stings across America to catch crooked Kops" according to its website. Kopbusters CEO Barry Cooper, a former narcotics investigator with the Permian Basin Drug Task Force, said Raymond Madden hired him and his group to target the Odessa Police Department and to help repeal Yolanda Madden's conviction.

The search affidavit used for the house relied on the anonymous letter and two observations made by the police after getting the letter. Bill McCoy, the 358th District judge who signed the warrant, said the landlord let the police into the house with a key after they showed her the warrant, but upon searching the house they only found Christmas trees under grow lights and a poster telling them they that Kopbusters was filming for a reality TV show.

Kopbusters CEO Barry Cooper said the police threatened the landlord's niece and house's owner with jail time for traffic warrants if she and her uncle didn't cooperate in the search. The property is listed in ECAD as being owned by Amanda Bowen.

However, Police Chief Burton said the landlord cooperated and even gave the police a key to enter the home prior to the search. Burton said the police still needed a search warrant despite the owner of the property cooperating because a legal lease was in place.

As for Pugh's role in delivering the anonymous letter to the police, Cooper said he wasn't buying any of it, and was adamant that Pierce delivered it.

"An affidavit is sworn, it's supposed to be true and accurate information," Cooper said. "The cops are lying. I don't trust any of those preachers. (I) believe they (the police) got burned on that affidavit and they're grasping."

Cooper then accused the OPD of using heat-sensing cameras - use of which in marijuana operations has been ruled unconstitutional in most cases by the U.S. Supreme Court - and then penning the anonymous letter themselves to bolster the affidavit.

"They get together and make up this f---ing letter to make it even look more credible," Cooper said.

He became angered when questioned about how he expected to let his "setup" house sit around for the police to happen upon it if Kopbusters had no involvement in the anonymous letter and accused an Odessa American reporter of being an "authority worshipper."

"Same thing I said before, anybody could have wrote that f---ing letter. Now I believe the cops wrote it," he said. "That first preacher is a f---ing cop ... how suspect is that ... now (the police) change it and say it wasn't that preacher but it was that preacher ... (that was) not correct on the f---ing affidavit."

The background

>> Odessan Yolanda Madden is serving 78 months at the Bryan Federal Prison Camp. She was convicted of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a park. She is expected to be released Dec. 31, 2011.

>> Madden's father, Raymond Madden, contends she's innocent and was framed by the Odessa Police Department. He hired former narcotics investigator and Permian Basin Drug Task Force member Barry Cooper, who is also CEO of Kopbusters, to help him prove her innocence and that OPD officers play fast and loose with the rules.

>> Cooper, who produced a video called "Never Get Busted Again" to show viewers how to avoid drug detection, devised an elaborate ruse in early December that led OPD to search an Odessa home. Cooper says OPD did not have enough probable cause to obtain a warrant to search the home. OPD officials say the ruse was a disservice to the people of Odessa and that the warrant was legally obtained. Judge Bill McCoy signed the warrant and said it appeared probable cause existed.

>> The original story on the search (located at www.oaoa.com and titled "Hoax mess") has generated hundreds of reader comments and remained in one of the most read story slots for more than a week.