Trucking Company Owner Fights DEA Over Slain Informant, Bullet-Riddled Vehicle

The owner of a small Texas trucking company continues to fight with the U.S. government over the death of an informant who was slain in Houston while working as the man's 18-wheeler driver and secretly assisting the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to issue a decision in the coming months over whether a lawsuit for damages should be sent back to Houston for a trial. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments Feb. 1 in New Orleans.

"Make no mistake about it, if this court affirms this court below then you are saying loudly and clearly that the United States government has the authority, the discretionary authority, to commandeer the vehicle or the property or the home of any person in this room for law enforcement purposes without their knowledge and without their consent, and even without paying under the tort claims act," Craig Patty's lawyer, Andy Vickery, told the panel of judges.

"That is what is at stake here, and it is truly extraordinary," Vickery said.

Patty's lawyers hope that the court will reverse a decision by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal that Patty should get nothing from DEA for secretly using his truck.

He got it back damaged by bullets, including those that killed the driver, Lawrence Chapa, who was behind the wheel and left blood splattered inside the cab during the November 2011 attack.

Chapa was driving a load of marijuana from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston in coordination with members of a DEA task force who were covertly trailing him.

They were to sweep in and make arrests when the load reached its destination. Instead, it was intercepted in broad daylight by cartel attackers. In the ensuing confusion, a plain-clothes Houston police officer shot and wounded a plain-clothes Harris County sheriff's deputy.

The government contends that it needs the discretion when it comes to fighting crime and that it needed to use Patty's truck.

Steve Franks, a lawyer for the Department of Justice, said the mission that involved Chapa and taking on the Zetas cartel was vital, and had to proceed.

He also said that there was nothing in the law that requires officers to seek the approval of a person before using their property in such an undercover situation.

Patty contends in his civil lawsuit that the government should not only pay for fixing the truck and the temporary loss of its use after the shootout but also for the emotional turmoil he and his family endured as they feared that the notorious Los Zetas cartel would target them.

Patty had sought up to $6.4 million with the lawsuit but said from the start that his main goal was to shed light on the case and have the facts known publicly.

Many of the government's motions filed in the case were kept sealed to protect the secrecy of DEA operations.