A University employee accused of using his position to obtain and sell a date rape drug will not be allowed bail.
A preliminary examination and detention hearing was held Wednesday, May 27, in the Federal courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel Jr. for University lab technician Stephen Howard.
Howard was arrested May 22 after he sold 1,4-butanediol to an undercover Auburn police officer during two separate occasion on May 7 and May 14.
Capel found probable cause to bind the case to a grand jury and denied Howard bail.
“Women are being drugged by a predator,” Capel said. “This isn’t just someone that’s talking bluster. This is someone that’s doing it to people so they can’t make decisions for themselves.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Verne Speirs called Auburn police detective Chris Carver as a witness.
Carver testified he became aware of Howard after the Auburn police arrested a man named Larry Harper in February 2015 for possession of drug paraphernalia.
“[Harper said] a man he knew as Steve, employed by Auburn University, who could procure GHB,” Carver said during his testimony.
Carver investigated Harper’s information and connected it to Howard. Carver then found a confidential informant who could introduce an undercover police officer to Howard.
The undercover officer arranged to meet Howard in the Wal-Mart parking lot on South College Street on May 7 to buy 20 ounces of 1,4-butanediol for $2 an ounce, according to Carver.
Carver said during the meeting, Howard told the undercover officer how 1,4-butanediol is metabolized by the human body into GHB, otherwise know as the date rape drug.
1,4-butanediol is considered analog to GHB under the law, according to Carver.
A second buy of 3 liters of 1,4-butanediol, or "water" as its known on the street, was made for $1,000 at the Burger King on South College Street on May 14, according to Carver.
During the first buy, Howard showed the undercover officer his Ruger LC9 9mm handgun which he called a “micro handgun,” according to Carver.
“(Howard) said he also had a short-barrel shotgun, in his words, that he nicknamed his ‘n----r cutter’ [because it would cut a man in half,]” Carver said.
Police recovered an 18-inch, 12-gauge shotgun from Howard’s home when he was arrested, Carver said.
Speirs said showing the gun to the undercover officer during the buy and the description of the shotgun was an implicit threat to the undercover officer if the deal went wrong.
Prosecutors played clips of a video of the exchange from a concealed camera on the undercover officer.
A man prosecutors said is Howard was heard describing what the drug’s effects were, including what would happen if someone took too much.
“I’ve had three females pass out on me,” the man identified as Howard said. “I mean they were friends, but they were there to f--k.”
Don Bethel, Howard’s defense attorney, argued that Howard had no previous criminal record other than a 1988 DUI conviction and should be granted bail.
Bethel called pretrial service officer Blake Tolbert to testify about Howard’s record. Bethel began asking questions about threats made during the undercover officer’s interaction with Howard to a woman in New Orleans and a woman in Montgomery.
Capel interrupted Bethel’s questioning and said he couldn’t ask questions without providing the full context. Capel had Tolbert read from the section of the affidavit that described the threats made by Howard.
The threats including shaving the woman’s head to shame her “like the nazi’s did” and carving the word “whore” into the woman’s forehead.
Tolbert said the women who the threats were made against have not been identified.
Bethel said the comments and the display of the handguns were nothing but “bluster.”
Bethel argued the prosecution was trying to play up a simple drug distribution case for the media, but Capel wasn’t swayed.
“I don’t care about the dog and pony show,” Capel said.
When Bethel tried to respond again, Capel cut him off, and said it was his turn to talk.
“I believe he’s a danger to the community,” Capel said. “He’ll be detained. We’re done here.”
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