Thad Cochran's former longtime aide sentencing delayed - admitted drug use and conspiracy to dis
By Spencer S. Hsu
UPDATE: A 9:30 a.m. sentencing hearing for Fred W. Pagan, a longtime aide to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was cancelled Friday morning and rescheduled for Jan. 15 by court officials. U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District cancelled her court calendar for the day for undisclosed reasons.
A senior U.S. senator is expected to speak in court in Washington on Friday morning on behalf of a longtime aide who faces sentencing on a federal drug charge.
Fred W. Pagan, 49, was dismissed in May from his $160,000-a-year job with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) after police and immigration authorities reported finding plastic bags with about 181.5 grams of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine in an April 23 raid on Pagan’s home in Northwest Washington.
After a series of traumas and emotional injuries during his life, Pagan’s attorney wrote in court filings, “one family has always stood by Fred — the Cochrans.”
Fred W. Pagan and Thad Cochran at Reagan National Airport in 2004. (Court filings)
In a deal with prosecutors, Pagan pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.
[Longtime aide to Sen. Thad Cochran charged with drug possession]
Prosecutors are seeking a 46-month prison term. Pagan’s attorneys are asking for three years’ probation and drug treatment, citing his exemplary work for Cochran — beginning as a 16-year-old page and progressing to be office manager, personal assistant and one of his highest-paid aides — after surviving an abusive childhood and the psychological toll of life as a mostly closeted gay man.
“Addicts should be treated as patients, not as prisoners,” defense attorney Kobie A. Flowers wrote U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District. “A sentence of 36 months of probation and drug treatment leaves fellowship and hope intact.”
Pagan’s appeal was supported by letters from more than 30 supporters, including Cochran; his wife, Kay Webber Cochran; his daughter, Kate Cochran; the senator’s chief of staff and two former chiefs of staff; and co-workers, teachers and counselors.
Cochran, 78, wrote that Pagan was energetic, dutiful and dependable and over more than 30 years became “one of the Senate’s best known and appreciated” employees.
“It is my intention to help him get a new start. I have confidence in his commitment to do a good job,” Cochran wrote in the brief letter.
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) (Bill Clark/CQ ROLL CALL)
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Pearlman wrote that while Pagan deserves credit for taking some responsibility and mostly cooperating with investigators, the government believed he withheld information.
“Pagan entered willingly into this narcotics conspiracy and should be held accountable for his choices,” Pearlman said. He added, “It is likely he has more knowledge about the scope and structure of the enterprise” than he revealed.
In plea documents, Pagan acknowledged receiving and holding methamphetamine for an unnamed distributor and romantic partner and sometimes requesting amounts for himself and selling small amounts to friends.
Authorities said in court filings that they also found gamma-butyrolactone, or GBL, a controlled substance said to build muscle, enhance sexual ability and aid sleep. GBL also breaks down into the “date rape” drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, they said in court filings.
Pagan acknowledged ordering and using GBL, a shipment of which was inspected by U.S. Customs officials, leading to the investigation. He agreed to forfeit $750 to the government, which Pagan received through what his attorney described as a “party and play” culture of gay life in Washington in which friends at his home reimbursed Pagan in “the same way a person might offer to pay for the wine at a dinner party.”
In court filings, Flowers cited several traumas Pagan endured, including being abused and serially abandoned by his estranged and alcoholic parents, who are now deceased.
Pagan “devoted his life to hiding his homosexuality” and concealed his drug use, Flowers wrote, but the attorney added that Cochran’s aides said he never betrayed their trust, whether dealing with sensitive office matters or instances in which they gave him access to bank accounts or house keys.
Kay Cochran, who was her husband’s former executive assistant, called Pagan the “go to” person in the senator’s office, while former chief of staff William LaForge described him as “ ‘glue’ that held the office together.”
Pagan’s former partner of 16 years wrote the court that the pair hosted the Senate office’s annual holiday party, and Cochran included a handwritten note thanking Pagan for his hosting duties.
Pagan also cared for Rose Cochran, Cochran’s wife of 50 years, who died in Dec. 2014 after 13 years in a nursing home with progressive dementia. A signed photo submitted to the court shows Pagan with the Cochrans. Rose Cochran wrote, “Fred: Best Buddy and family!”
“I trusted Fred implicitly. . . . and he never betrayed us in these areas,” Kay Cochran wrote to the court. “Looking back, I realize there were signs of change. The ‘Cochran family’ should have noticed because his work habits changed,” she added, referring to Pagan’s secret drug use.
She added, “Fred has told me how sorry he is for making the poor choices he made,” including disappointing his many friends “and most of all Senator Cochran.”
Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy award nominee.
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Senate staffer planned to trade drugs for sex: authorities
NICOLE HENSLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 04/24/2015 5:20 PM ET
A staffer for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is accused of smuggling drugs to trade for sex, court documents allege.
A staffer for a Mississippi senator says he planned to trade methamphetamine and date rape drugs shipped to his home for sexual favors, authorities have alleged.
Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted a package full of gamma-Butyrolactone, also known as GBL, addressed to Fred W. Pagan at his Washington D.C. home, shipped all the way from China, court documents show.
Pagan is an officer manager for Republican Sen. Thad Cochran.
The April 9 discovery at a Ohio shipping facility led to a search warrant being served at Pagan’s Colorado Avenue residence on April 23 when investigators found 181 grams worth of methamphetamine in plastic baggies from a California dealer.
Pagan planned to trade both drugs for sexual favors, he told Homeland Security investigators.
He confessed to taking a number of packages from the unidentified dealer in the past so they could avoid being caught.
The packages were addressed to “Longevity Concepts LNC, Fred Pagan.”
Cochran’s officer learned a staffer had been arrested, but had yet to see the allegations against Pagan filed today, the Washington City Paper reported.
nhensley@nydailynews.com
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