Henley Accused of Second Drug Deal From Jail

LOS ANGELES —  Only two days after he was charged with arranging a $1-million heroin deal from behind bars, former Ram cornerback Darryl Henley was accused Thursday of engineering a second major drug deal from jail, this one involving his youngest brother, his girlfriend and the mother of his child.

Two affidavits unsealed Thursday also shed new light on Henley’s alleged plot to assassinate the federal judge in his 1995 cocaine trafficking trial and the former Ram cheerleader who testified against him.

One affidavit describes tape-recorded conversations in which Henley tells an undercover agent that he wants U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor “blown up” and cheerleader Tracy Donaho to “disappear.”

One of Henley’s jail guards, Rodney Anderson, an alleged partner in the heroin deal, at one point apparently agreed to murder Taylor and Donaho, the court records state.

According to the records, Henley told a fellow inmate that “Anderson was a sharpshooter with extensive military experience, and that Anderson would be provided with addresses for the intended targets.”

The affidavit states that Anderson boasted that with “the proper equipment, he could shoot a person from a substantial distance, thereby minimizing the chance of being caught.”

In unveiling Thursday’s charges, federal agents said that more of Henley’s family members and close friends had become involved in this latest scheme to distribute 25 kilograms of cocaine in Detroit. Henley’s uncle and a childhood friend were convicted along with Henley in 1995 of distributing a similar amount of cocaine for sale in Memphis and Atlanta. On Thursday, agents arrested Henley’s 26-year-old brother, Eric, in Waco, Texas, charging him with being part of the most recent plot. The younger Henley was an all-American selection when he played football at La Verne’s Damien High School. He went on to star as a wide receiver for Rice University in Houston.

Their mother, Dorothy Henley, and an uncle, Clintell Henley, declined to comment on the charges.

Also named in the second federal complaint were Ronald and Donald Knight, 31-year-old twin brothers who have long been friends and business associates of the 29-year-old Henley.

The former Ram has testified in court that he owns a record label, Rhythm Records, with the Knights, who were arrested at their Los Angeles-area residences early Thursday.

Two women named in the complaint, Kym Taylor, 36, and Alisa Denmon, 30, were still at large. Denmon is the mother of Henley’s infant child, while Taylor is the football star’s current girlfriend. Both women reportedly plan to surrender to authorities within the next 24 hours.

The federal complaint relates how, during a family visit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Henley introduced his brother Eric to a fellow inmate who was an informant. Eric Henley was running the drug trafficking business while he was in jail, Henley told the inmate.

Thursday’s revelations were the latest twists in a case that has become increasingly tangled since Henley and four others were arrested in 1993 on cocaine trafficking charges.

Henley, his uncle Rex Henley and three others were already in jail awaiting sentencing on their March 1995 convictions on charges of conspiring to sell 25 kilos of cocaine when the two new rounds of charges were leveled against Henley this week.

The five men are seeking a new trial, contending that a juror solicited a $50,000 bribe to vote not guilty for Henley, and that the verdict was tainted by racism. The motion for a retrial is pending before Judge Taylor.

Prosecutors have raised serious doubts about the chances for a second trial, arguing that Henley was at the center of the unsuccessful bribery scheme. The individual charged with actually offering the bribe pleaded guilty last month, and said in a court document that Henley put him up to it.

The affidavit unsealed Thursday said that both Donald and Ronald Knight attended Henley’s 1995 trial in Santa Ana and, acting on signals from the defendant, threatened and harassed witnesses.

Ronald Knight is also alleged to have helped a former juror “concoct false allegations of juror racial bias” and to have threatened to harm the juror if he did not stick to his story, the affidavit states.

The affidavit provides a detailed account of how the jailed football player, his jailer, family and friends allegedly attempted to pull off a large-scale drug deal: It began in February when Henley told a fellow inmate, who was an informant for federal agents, that he needed someone to transport cocaine to several destinations across the country.

The football player said he had customers in various cities, each in need of 30 to 50 kilograms of cocaine. Henley needed a new source for drugs because his previous supplier, Rafael Bustamante, was now in jail.

In April, the informant told authorities that Henley was looking for someone who could supply him 50 kilograms of cocaine because Eric Henley had been unable to obtain the quantity they wanted. Henley promised to deliver his 1990 Mercedes-Benz and $25,000 cash as collateral for the drugs.

Taylor, Ronald Knight and Denmon helped Henley deliver the black Mercedes and a negotiable lien on a San Dimas home to undercover agents acting as drug dealers.

Donald Knight accompanied the younger Henley to a restaurant in Ontario and acted as a lookout while the younger Henley negotiated the deal with undercover agents.

Jimmy Washington, Henley’s alleged Detroit drug connection who was also charged Tuesday in the alleged heroin-trafficking deal, was to handle the distribution of the drugs.

The affidavit does not say whether the deal was ever completed. But the following month, Henley was setting up the $1-million heroin deal, court records state.

One of the affidavits also describes an extraordinary relationship between Henley and his jailer. The burly guard became the former football star’s hired gun, drug courier and nightly gofer, fetching Henley both cellular phones and recreational narcotics, court records state.

While the other inmates remained in their cells, Anderson, a military veteran who had worked at the facility since February 1994, allowed Henley the run of the ninth floor of the detention center each night, the court records said.

Anderson also provided cell phones to other inmates, who paid up to $3,000 a month for the privilege. Henley directed other inmates to wire money for the use of the phones to a Western Union account specified by Anderson, court records state.

Anderson would give the inmates the phones to use at 10 p.m. and pick them up at 5 a.m., the affidavit said. Henley was allowed to “roam freely” as he talked, or to use a private room for confidential conversations, the affidavit said.

Authorities learned of Henley’s plan to have Anderson kill Taylor and Donaho when he told an inmate working as an informant that “he had arranged to have Anderson commit the murders,” according to the affidavit.

On May 16, the inmate heard Anderson discussing “guns and silencers” with another inmate, then later describing his sharpshooting ability, court records state.

Over the next week, Henley, Anderson and Washington tried to complete the heroin deal with undercover agents acting as drug suppliers, the court records state.

Henley told an undercover agent that the proceeds of the $1-million heroin deal would be used to finance the murders of Donaho and Taylor, court records state. Anderson had apparently bowed out as the hit man, however, and Henley hired an undercover agent to do the job, offering $100,000 for each of the hits, court records state.

Henley told the undercover agent that Anderson, using his “federal law enforcement connections,” would provide the home addresses, photographs and background information on the judge and the cheerleader, court records said.

When the agent asked Henley if they should wait to commit the murders, Henley “said he wanted it done immediately,” the affidavit said.

The next day, officials at the detention center confiscated Henley’s phone and placed Anderson on paid administrative leave. On May 25, Anderson, Henley and Washington were arrested, and on Tuesday, Henley and Anderson were arraigned on drug trafficking charges.

So far, no one has been charged with the alleged murder-for-hire scheme.

But Assistant U.S Atty. Marc Harris, who is prosecuting the latest drug cases against Henley, said prosecutors “need to assess the evidence and decide what we’re going to present to the [federal] grand jury.”

On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge R.J. Groh Jr. in Los Angeles ordered Ronald Knight held without bail. His brother was released on a $200,000 bond, with the provision that he remain at his family’s Compton home and that the telephones there be tapped.

The Knight twins are the cousins of Suge Knight, chairman of Death Row Records, the most successful rap label in the nation. The Los Angeles firm has dominated the nation’s pop charts with rap music by such stars as Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur.

Henley’s attorney, William Kopeny, declined to comment on the latest charges and said he has not yet decided whether to ask Judge Taylor to disqualify himself from any further involvement in Henley’s case.

“I do not know the facts yet,” Kopeny said. “I am becoming less and less surprised with this case regardless of the nature of the allegations. It takes twists and turns, and new allegations surface every month or so.”