Warren fed information to IRS, agent tells court
The following appeared on page 1 of the Arizona Republic on Friday January 6th 1978 and was written by Frank Turco:
Confessed swindler Ned Warren was an informant for the Internal Revenue Service at the time the federal government was pressing extortion charges against him, a federal agent claimed Thursday. Fred J. Cannon, a supervisor in the IRS office here, testified in Maricopa County Superior Court that most of the information obtained from Warren was not specific enough to be useful.
He said he terminated the arrangement late in 1976 because he felt the information he was getting was not helpful or constructive. Canon was among six persons who testified at a presentence hearing for Warren, who pleaded guilty to 22 felony charges. The hearing is to continue today before Judge Howard F. Thompson.
"You got to remember that the relationship and the information we were getting was tempered by his asking our agency to help him with his own problems," Canon testified.
Although he did not mention the specific problems, the period in which Warren acted as an informant - 1975 and 1976 - was the same time the government was moving on extortion charges against him. Canon did not say if his agency attempted to aid Warren, who later was convicted of the extortion charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The conviction is under appeal.
The IRS agent said he knew of only one time when Warren's assistance may have been used by government prosecutors. He said Warren may have helped arrange for a woman to testify in a successful tax case against former Phoenix businessman Clyde Dinnell.
A retired IRS agent, Frank Pinna, said he recalled that Warren helped him locate three other witnesses in another case and once gave him information that was turned over to the Phoenix Police Department.
Pinna, however, said he took medical retirement from the IRS late in 1976 and never found out if the witnesses or the information proved helpful.
Two medical heart specialists - Drs. Ruben Valdez and Howard Reuben - testified, they did not believe that Warren could receive the proper care for his heart problem at the Arizona State Prison. "I think New Warren can be in jail," Valdez said, but stressed that the jail facility should have special medical equipment to treat a heart patient and the prison does not have the necessary equipment.
Valdez, who has treated Warren since last July, testified that the defendant is suffering from a serious heart condition, which could be fatal at any time. He said that if Warren is sent to prison, it could have a "very bad effect" on his health.
Both doctors admitted under cross-examination by Deputy County Attorney Frank Murray that Warren's complaints of pain and other symptoms are subjective and no drastic changes in his heart condition have been seen in recent electronic examinations. Others who testified included Robert Parrish, a Pima County deputy attorney, and Larry Simpson, a Pima County sheriff's deputy.
Parrish testified that Warren had assisted him in the preparation of a fraud case involving four former employees of Equitable Mortgage Co. The trial will be held in Tucson Feb. 7 and Parrish said he plans to use Warren as a witness.
Simpson told the court of a conversation he had in Tucson with Warren in which the defendant urged that he not be called as a witness in the Equittable case because much of the information he had supplied authorities was wrong.
Warren, who has been held at the Maricopa County Jail since Dec. 13, sat through the hearing dressed in the jail uniform of Levis and a white T-shirt.
His wife, Barbara, was sworn in as a witness, but she was not called by the defense attorney, Harry A. Stewart Jr. She was permitted to visit with her husband during two recesses.