CLEVELAND — Wes Ballard is trying to put his life back together after serving 10 months in jail because of a tainted drug operation involving a dishonest informant and a federal agent whose conduct is facing multiple investigations.

Ballard and 25 other people were arrested in an investigation meant to clean up the drug trade in Mansfield, a blue-collar city between Cleveland and Columbus, but instead left a trail of legal fallout that could affect the way the government pursues drug dealers.

AP

Wes Ballard at his mother’s home last week in Mansfield.

Last month the government asked a federal judge to dismiss charges — including conspiracy and cocaine trafficking — against most of those who had pleaded guilty or been convicted. The government’s drug sting was based on a tips from Jerrell Bray, a small-time operator who offered his services to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Bray, 34, has admitted to a fabric of lies meant to polish his informant credentials and keep suspects flowing through the court system. He’s serving 15 years for perjury and civil rights violations against the individuals targeted in his role as an informant.

Ballard said Bray’s allegations against him came out of the blue. He said he saw Bray at a church-sponsored auto show but never met him.

After spending nearly a year in jail awaiting trial, Ballard was acquitted last year by a jury skeptical of Bray’s testimony. Bray’s description of Ballard’s height was off by 8 inches.

Others didn’t fare as well: a Mansfield mother was convicted of being a drug courier and spent 16 months in prison before her case was thrown out last May.

Lewis Katz, a law professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, said the botched cases highlight the risks of working with informants and compared them to unreliable jail snitches hoping to win a shorter sentence.

While police sometimes must rely on informants, “It is very disturbing that they simply accepted this person’s claim against so many defendants,” Katz said.

Katz said prosecutors sometimes fail to assess an informant’s reliability in their zeal to lock up criminals.

“Once they get in the competitive atmosphere of a prosecution, unfortunately, too many prosecutors fail to second-guess their own evidence,” Katz said.

The Justice Department has started an internal investigation on DEA Agent Lee Lucas, who handled Bray’s undercover work. The DEA also is investigating, along with a grand jury probe directed by an outside prosecutor assigned from Pennsylvania.

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