Informant's death in Tallahassee brings speculation to Clearwater Informant's death in Tallahassee brings speculation to Clearwater - St. Petersburg Times

Top News Breaking News Hernando Hillsborough Pasco Pinellas Beyond Tampa Bay Opinion Education Obituaries Video

Top Politics News

Top Sports News Buccaneers Rays Lightning High School USF Bulls UF Gators FSU Seminoles Golf Auto Racing Outdoors Community Sports

Top Entertainment News Food & Drink Events Movie Listings TV Listings Party Photos Games & Comics

Top Business News Stocks

Top Lifestyle News Travel LifeTimes

Breaking News Stuck in the '80s The Buzz Ballpark Frankness Bucs Beat The Juice The Heater High School Sports USF Bulls Pop Life TroxBlog More

Classifieds Coupons Preferred Partners Email Sell Stuff Special Sections

Buy/Sell Research ATVs, Go-Carts, Mopeds Parts & Service RVs, Motor Homes, Campers

Site Archives - Free since 1987 Web

Most emailed Pelican collides with tourist Man, 77, sends intruder out on a stretcher Parents blame Tallahassee police in death of Pinellas woman Mother's Day, meet the kinder, gentler survivalist Though mom is gone, love remains

Public Safety: Crime

Special reportA Cry in the Night

Almost 25 years after a murder shocked the little city of Gulfport, the man convicted of the killing hopes that DNA evidence can clear him. More special reports

Video reportKitchen surprise: 8-foot gator

When Sandra Frosti went to check out an odd noise, what she found on the floor was worse than cockroaches. A lot worse. More video reports

Multimedia reportMother of all quizzes

To get over the guilt of knowing you can never do enough for Mom, here is a quiz on some famous ones. More multimedia reports

Fill out this form to email this article to a friend Your name

Your email

Recipient email

You may enter up to 20 multiple email addresses, separated by commas.

Your message

Rachel Hoffman was killed while working as a police informant in a drug case in Tallahassee.

Rachel Hoffman, a graduate of Clearwater's Countryside High School who was killed last week while posing as a drug buyer for the Tallahassee Police Department, will be buried Tuesday.

Hoffman's family said Sunday that a service will be held 11 a.m. at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road in Palm Harbor. She'll then be laid to rest at nearby Curlew Hills cemetery, 1750 Curlew Road.

"I'm heartbroken," said her father, Irv Hoffman, 58. "We're just trying to make it through the next few days."

Details of how the 23-year-old with a degree in psychology from Florida State University agreed to become an undercover informant, only to be killed in a rural area near Tallahassee, remained elusive.

Tallahassee police have been reluctant to provide information, according to the Hoffman family and the young woman's attorney, Johnny Devine. A department spokesman declined comment Sunday.

Hoffman was in a drug diversion program stemming from a 2007 arrest for felony marijuana possession. Tallahassee police have said she was recently arrested again and faced charges of possession of ecstasy with intent to sell, maintaining a drug house and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Devine believes Hoffman, who was fearful of going to jail, was coerced into becoming an informant, then was recklessly sent into a dangerous situation without adequate police oversight.

"They knew she had an attorney," Devine said. "And they never contacted me."

Wednesday, she was supposed to buy 1,500 pills of ecstasy, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun from Andrea J. Green and Deneilo Bradshaw, who were arrested Thursday in Orlando in connection with Hoffman's death.

Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocols and left officer supervision to go with the men.

Today, Tallahassee police were to release more details on the new charges Hoffman faced. They've kept mum about the manner of her death.

But Devine said he knows his client was shot, and he wonders whether it was with the same gun police sent her to buy.

"They knew they would be armed," Devine said. "It is inexcusable that police, knowing what they did, would send her into that situation."

Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4166. Information from the Tallahassee Democrat was used in this report.

[Last modified: May 11, 2008 07:46 PM]

Email Newsletters

Be the first to know. Register for free breaking news alerts and morning headlines.

(c) 2008 7 All Rights Reserved 7 St. Petersburg Times

490 First Avenue South 7 St. Petersburg, FL 33701 7 727-893-8111

concept		evidence	hits	links
	$drug_related [news] [concept]	$paraphernalia $illegal_drugs
	$drugwar_propaganda [news] [concept]	$propaganda_theme1 $propaganda_theme2 $propaganda_theme3 $propaganda_theme4		Classic Modern Drug Propaganda Themes in Chemical Prohibition Drug War Propaganda (book)
	$propaganda_theme1 80% [news] [concept]	"drug house"	1	Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/druguse.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm http://www.narcoterror.org/
	$propaganda_theme2 70% [news] [concept]	"murder" "Crime" "death" "dangerous"	8	Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm Distortion 18: Cannabis and Mental Illness
	$propaganda_theme3 50% [news] [concept]	"Community"	1	Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3)
	$use_is_abuse [news] [concept]	"marijuana possession"	1	Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/addictiv.htm
	$propaganda_theme4 [news] [concept]	$use_is_abuse		Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4)
	$illegal_drugs [news] [concept]	$cannabis $various_illegal_drugs $stimulant $hallucinogen
	$drugs 90% [news] [concept]	$various_drugs
	$meeting 60% [news] [concept]	"will be held" "meet"	2
	$hallucinogen 60% [news] [concept]	$euphoric_empathogen $phenethylamine		http://www.MAPS.org/ http://www.erowid.org/ http://www.lycaeum.org/ http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm Wikipedia: Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants
	$chemicals [news] [concept]	$cocaine $MDMA		http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/chemicals.s...
	$plants [news] [concept]	$cannabis		http://www.erowid.org/plants/plants.shtml
	$phenethylamine 60% [news] [concept]	$MDMA		http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/...
	$euphoric_stimulant [news] [concept]	$cocaine
	$euphoric_empathogen 60% [news] [concept]	$MDMA
	$intoxicant [news] [concept]	$cannabis
	$stimulant [news] [concept]	$cocaine $MDMA
	$cocaine [news] [concept]	"cocaine" "crack cocaine" "crack"	4	http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cocaine.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crack.htm http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/cocaine/
	$MDMA 60% [news] [concept]	"of ecstasy" "ecstasy"	4	http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/ http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/ecstasy.htm Distortion 8: Ecstasy http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/ http://thedea.org/
	$cannabis [news] [concept]	"marijuana"	1	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_use_... Cannabis-Driving Studies MAPInc.org Cannabis Link DB http://www.pot-tv.net http://www.marijuananews.com/ http://www.cannabisnews.com/ http://www.cannabisculture.com Schaffer Library: Marijuana http://www.drugwarfacts.org/marijuan.htm
	$paraphernalia [news] [concept]	"drug paraphernalia" "paraphernalia"	2	CannabisNews.com paraphernalia news
	$various_drugs 90% [news] [concept]	"drug"	5
	$various_illegal_drugs 80% [news] [concept]	"drug house"	1	http://www.mapinc.org http://www.drugwarfacts.org DEA's Drugs of Abuse booklet http://www.drugwarfacts.org/drugtest.htm
	$school [news] [concept]	"School" "University"	4	http://www.ssdp.org/

Donate to drugsense please give generously!