LF: Broward teacher deserves 8 years in prison for alerting drug dealers about investigation, feds say

Title: Broward teacher deserves 8 years in prison for alerting drug dealers about investigation, feds say
Source: Sun Senteniel
URL Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/cr ... sentencing-20170620-story.html
Published: Jun 20, 2017
Author: Paula McMahon
Post Date: 2017-06-21 18:01:14 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 666
Comments: 2

An elementary school teacher employed by Broward County Public Schools was charged Tuesday with obstructing a drug investigation, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release.

A Broward County elementary school teacher who tried to get revenge against her husband by tipping off drug dealers that they were under investigation should spend the next eight years in federal prison because the consequences of her actions were so serious, prosecutors say.

The undercover investigation was compromised and an insider informant who was secretly working with federal authorities was “outed.” He died of a gunshot wound a short time later under suspicious circumstances that were officially ruled a suicide, prosecutors said.

The defense for Porsha Session, 31, of Boynton Beach, says she acted naively to retaliate against her then-husband — a Lauderhill police detective who was involved in the investigation — because he was cheating on her.

Session told prosecutors she wanted “revenge against her philandering police officer spouse,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She said she snooped in her now ex-husband’s work email and found memos containing sensitive law enforcement information about the investigation, the suspects and the fact that agents had an informant working inside the group.

A Broward County elementary school teacher has admitted that she tipped off drug dealers that they were under investigation and an informant in the group was telling law enforcement about their crimes.

Porsha Session, 31, of Boynton Beach, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal obstruction of an...

Session was a teacher at Cypress Elementary School in Pompano Beach at the time of the crime in March 2013, according to Broward County school district and court records. Authorities said she borrowed a co-worker’s cell phone to make the warning calls, also putting that teacher in potential danger.

Session was working as a fourth-grade teacher at Deerfield Beach Elementary until this April 25, a few weeks after she pleaded guilty. She was reassigned, with pay, to a position that does not involve students, district officials said late Tuesday.

Session has worked for the school district for nine years and her annual salary is $49,000, records show.

Session was arrested in February and remains free on $260,000 bond pending her June 28 sentencing in federal court in West Palm Beach. The maximum punishment is 20 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000, but the defense is recommending she be sentenced to house arrest.

“Ms. Session has been a law-abiding person her entire life. She has no criminal history and her only involvement with the law was due to a bad marriage,” her attorney Fred Haddad wrote in court records.

Prosecutors said Session’s actions were so egregious — and dangerous — that she should receive a much harsher punishment than the 15 to 21 months in prison recommended by sentencing guidelines.

The undercover investigation began in October 2012 and was focused on a “crew” of seven Jamaican-born men suspected of operating a “significant” drug-dealing business in the Lauderhill and Fort Lauderdale areas, prosecutors Jeffrey Kaplan and Paul Schwartz wrote in court records.

The group, who grew up together, were so tight-knit that inserting an outsider was virtually impossible, prosecutors said. The confidential informant, who has not been publicly identified, was in a unique position to provide credible, useful information, they said.

The informant told investigators that the crew members were violent, carried guns at all times and robbed other drug dealers. Some of the home invasions involved dealers being shot and injured, investigators said.

The group was also involved in smuggling weapons from Covington, Ga., and Orlando to Broward County that were then illegally sent to Jamaica, prosecutors said. The suspects had assault rifles and other guns, they said.

The suspects were also involved in dealing drugs, including marijuana from Arizona and California that was shipped by FedEx to houses in South Florida, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the informant had previously been unconcerned about his safety and had confronted one of the suspects who called him a “snitch” a week or two before Session told the suspects they were under scrutiny. He convinced the suspect that he was not a snitch.

“By contrast, after defendant Session told [the suspect] that someone close to him within their group was providing information to law enforcement about their criminal activities, the [informant] was terrified and in tears,” prosecutors wrote. “[He] believed that he was going to be killed.”

Investigators decided it was too dangerous to leave the informant in Broward County, and he and his girlfriend were moved to southern Miami-Dade County.

Two months after Session made her phone calls to the suspects, the informant was dead.

“In May 2013, according to the [informant’s] girlfriend, [he] was visited by someone who his girlfriend did not know. After the person left, the [informant] was found dead pursuant to a gunshot wound. The death was ruled a suicide,” prosecutors wrote.

“There is no evidence that the ‘outing’ of the [informant] directly caused bodily harm to [him]. However, the actions of defendant Session did set off a chain of events that certainly have to be considered as a factor in the death of the [informant], which was ruled a suicide,” they wrote.

Lauderhill police have said that no officers were disciplined in connection with the investigation, which involved other local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Dozens of Session’s relatives, friends and colleagues have written letters to U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks to tell him what a talented, dedicated mom and teacher she is. The former couple have a 5-year-old daughter, records show.

“Her dedication to her profession and the children she taught is nothing short of remarkable,” Haddad wrote. “[Her] lack of criminal record and her conduct after this unfortunate offense several years ago demonstrate that she does not pose a threat of re-offending or otherwise endangering the public.”

How was it that the husband's "sensitive law enforcement information" was sitting in an email account (email being typically unsecure anyway), and accessible by a wife he was cheating on?