May 12, 2008 -- St. Petersburg Times (FL) Informer's Death In Tallahassee Brings Speculation To Clearwater By Will Van Sant, Times Staff Writer

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Rachel Hoffman, a graduate of Clearwater's Countryside High School who was killed last week while posing as a drug buyer for the Tallahassee Police Department, will be buried Tuesday.

Hoffman's family said Sunday that a service will be held 11 a.m. at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road in Palm Harbor. She'll then be laid to rest at nearby Curlew Hills cemetery, 1750 Curlew Road.

"I'm heartbroken," said her father, Irv Hoffman, 58. "We're just trying to make it through the next few days."

Details of how the 23-year-old with a degree in psychology from Florida State University agreed to become an undercover informer, only to be killed in a rural area near Tallahassee, remained elusive.

Tallahassee police have been reluctant to provide information, according to the Hoffman family and the young woman's attorney, Johnny Devine. A department spokesman declined comment Sunday.

Hoffman was in a drug diversion program stemming from a 2007 arrest for felony marijuana possession. Tallahassee police have said she was recently arrested again and faced charges of possession of ecstasy with intent to sell, maintaining a drug house and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Devine believes Hoffman, who was fearful of going to jail, was coerced into becoming an informer, then was recklessly sent into a dangerous situation without adequate police oversight.

"They knew she had an attorney," Devine said. "And they never contacted me."

Wednesday, she was supposed to buy 1,500 pills of ecstasy, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun from Andrea J. Green and Deneilo Bradshaw, who were arrested Thursday in Orlando in connection with Hoffman's death.

Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocols and left officer supervision to go with the men.

Today, Tallahassee police were to release more details on the new charges Hoffman faced. They've kept mum about the manner of her death.

But Devine said he knows his client was shot, and he wonders whether it was with the same gun police sent her to buy.

"They knew they would be armed," Devine said. "It is inexcusable that police, knowing what they did, would send her into that situation."

Note: Information from the Tallahassee Democrat was used in this report.

Photo: Rachel Hoffman was killed while working as a police informer in a drug case in Tallahassee

More on Rachel Hoffman: www.mapinc.org/people/Rachel+Hoffman

May 12, 2008 -- Tampa Tribune (FL)

Parents Blame Police In Death

By Rich Shopes, Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE -- Irv Hoffman and Margie Weiss spent Mother's Day planning their only child's funeral.

"We had to go to her apartment and turn off the utilities and go through her things. This was a kid who was going to go far in life," Weiss, of Safety Harbor, said Sunday during a drive back from Tallahassee.

Police say 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee, after a two-day search. Two suspects are in custody.

The Pinellas County woman, a graduate of Countryside High School in Clearwater, was cooperating with the narcotics squad in an investigation when she disappeared Wednesday.

Her father said it didn't make any sense involving his daughter in a drug and weapons investigation.

"To throw her to the lions, it's just too unbearable to think about," said Hoffman, 58, of Palm Harbor.

At a news conference Sunday, lawyers representing the woman's family said Hoffman should not have been placed in such a dangerous situation.

Attorney Johnny Devine criticized Tallahassee police, saying authorities blamed Hoffman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, for her own murder.

Hoffman, who was facing several felony charges, had agreed to cooperate with narcotics officers and was posing as a buyer.

Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocol when she left with Andrea J. Green and Deneilo Bradshaw, who are now suspects in her disappearance and death.

Green and Bradshaw both face kidnapping and armed robbery charges. Jail records show they have not made court appearances or been granted bail.

Authorities should have done a better job protecting Hoffman, Devine said.

Her parents remembered a vivacious young woman who loved life and "was a shining light whenever she walked into a room," Weiss, 57, said.

"She was the most loving, beautiful girl you could meet," her father said.

"She wanted to go to culinary school. She wanted to open a restaurant with a friend. She loved nature, music and art," he said. "I feel like the wind has been kicked out of me."

Although Hoffman majored in psychology at FSU, her passion was cooking. She wanted to attend a culinary school in Arizona.

"She always had room in her heart and a place at a table," said Susan Mike, a family friend.

Weiss said she wants to push for a law in which confidential informants are required to seek legal advice before consenting to undercover work. She also wants marijuana convictions decriminalized.

She said her daughter called two weeks ago to tell her she wanted to work undercover with the Tallahassee police to expunge her arrest record, which included a marijuana charge. Weiss advised against it.

"It was totally wrong. She trusted them. She put her trust in them," she said.

Officers established a safe zone in the area where Hoffman was supposed to purchase ecstasy, cocaine and a gun, Tallahassee police spokesman David McCranie said. An investigator told her not to go to another location.

Devine, who represented Hoffman on previous drug charges, said neither he nor the state attorney's office knew about the arrangement.

Department policy did not call for the state attorney's office to be notified, and it was Hoffman's responsibility to inform her attorney of the situation, McCranie said.

The funeral service for Hoffman will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor.

"She was an innocent, and they try to slander her," Weiss said. "It's Mother's Day, and they're trying to make my daughter sound like a criminal."

May 12, 2008 -- Tallahassee Democrat (FL)

Tallahassee Police Expected To Release More Details In Hoffman Case

By Nic Corbett, Democrat Staff Writer

Tallahassee police are expected to release some details today of Rachel Hoffman's most recent arrest, which led to her working for the police. Hoffman, 23, was never charged with a crime or booked into jail as a result of a recent run-in with the law, but Police Chief Dennis Jones has said she faced multiple drug-related charges.

Hoffman was killed last week after a drug buying operation went awry. Two men have been arrested and are expected to be charged with her murder, police said.

The attorneys of the Tallahassee woman who was killed while working as a police informant said her family is exasperated by the lack of information coming from the Tallahassee Police Department.

Rachel Morningstar Hoffman, 23, was found dead Friday morning in rural Taylor County. She was last seen Wednesday night near Forestmeadows Park, where she was helping police in a supervised buy bust. Two men, Andrea J. Green and Deneilo Bradshaw, have been arrested on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery. Murder charges are pending, according to TPD. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is assisting in the investigation.

"Today is Mother's Day, and today, Rachel Hoffman's mother will spend her day preparing for a funeral and the burial of her only daughter, who was taken in a senseless and extreme act of violence," attorney Johnny Devine said Sunday at a news conference.

Devine and attorney Danielle Joyner Kelley said the family needs answers, but police have not been forthcoming.

"They are left to speculate about the last night of their daughter's life," Joyner Kelley said. "That is reprehensible."

Officer David McCranie, spokesman for the Police Department, said while his heart goes out to the Hoffmans, there are certain details the police cannot release at this time.

"It's something that we want to do, but there are ongoing operations right now that could place officers and confidential informants in jeopardy by releasing that information," he said. "I hope we're able to at some point, so we can at least clarify for the public and Rachel's family that her safety was paramount."

The family wants to know why their daughter, who has no violent criminal record, was asked to buy a gun, as well as 1,500 ecstasy pills and 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine, from Green and Bradshaw in the police narcotics investigation, they said. They want to know how much training she had to go undercover. They want to know how police lost her when she decided to leave the park area.

"Why was she put in that position in the first place?" Devine said.

Devine and Joyner Kelley said Hoffman's family is angry that police officials at a Friday press conference blamed Hoffman for her own death and presented her criminal record without revealing in detail what happened during the buy bust and how police lost track of her.

"They really need to quit acting like a lawsuit has already been filed," Joyner Kelly said.

When asked about a potential lawsuit, Devine and Joyner Kelley said the Hoffman family is not filing one at this time.

Joyner Kelley said she thinks the Police Department needs to take a hard look at how it chooses informants.

"The program would need to be evaluated to make sure this doesn't happen again," she said.

Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones will be reviewing the facts of Hoffman's operation to make sure the officers involved were following the correct procedures. Jones will make adjustments to protocol if necessary. McCranie said it's too early to say whether the officers should have done anything differently.

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