Grand Jury Slams Cops for Informant Death ( Update to Recent story)

A Florida grand jury Friday blasted local police and federal law enforcement for bungling an undercover operation in May that led to the murder of Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old woman acting as their confidential informant.

"During the course of our review of the facts, it became apparent to us that negligent conduct on the part of the Tallahassee Police Department and [the Drug Enforcement Administration] attributed to Ms. Hoffman's death," the grand jury wrote.

The panel was charged with hearing evidence that the two alleged drug dealers Hoffman met as part of the operation had killed her. While the panelists dispatched multi-count indictments for the two men, Deneilo R. Bradshaw and Andrea J. Green, they also turned their ire on the Tallahassee Police Department, which had recruited Hoffman and concocted the sting, and on the DEA agents who assisted.

In a six-page document accompanying the indictments, the grand jury described how the bust became a massive tragedy of errors – despite the involvement of fifteen Tallahassee police officers, three Drug Enforcement Agency agents and a state highway patrol officer.