By Ken Maguire, The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - Add John Coyne’s name to the list of informants whom the FBI would rather forget.
When Coyne was in state prison and learned fellow inmates were planning an armored car heist upon their release, he wrote a letter to prison officials, who forwarded it to the FBI.
An FBI agent from the Boston office met Coyne, encouraged him to become an informant, and instructed him to write two more letters.
The first letter, routed through the FBI, would go to the ringleader of the planned heist, offering to join the crew. The second letter would go to the FBI, acknowledging he’s acting as an informant.
Problem was, the FBI sent both letters to the ringleader.
“Thereafter, word of Coyne’s actions spread through the prison system and, at some point, Coyne had his teeth broken by a fellow inmate who accused him of ‘ratting’ on others,” a U.S. Court of Appeals panel wrote in a decision Tuesday.
Coyne’s lawsuit has been moving through the court system since it was filed in 2001. The Appeals Court ruling Tuesday was a victory for FBI agent Margaret Cronin, who appealed to remove herself from the suit. As a result of the ruling she cannot be held personally liable in the lawsuit.
“Although the complaint alleges plenty of facts, it does not even hint at a suggestion that Cronin acted with deliberate indifference towards Coyne’s well being,” the ruling stated. “Everything we know from the complaint and Coyne’s own allegations show that this is basically a negligence case to which the government must respond,” the ruling reads.
Coyne’s case remains in federal district court. He is out of prison.
It was September, 1999 when Coyne, then an inmate at the state prison in Concord, met Cronin, another FBI agent, an unidentified federal prosecutor, and a Cambridge police officer.
“Cronin thanked Coyne for his prior disclosures and assured him that she would take the precautions necessary to keep him safe,” the ruling said.
She returned one month later and told Coyne that “the FBI had made a ‘terrible mistake’ and had forwarded Coyne’s entire parcel - including his letter to the FBI (which was sure to alert any reader that Coyne was an FBI informant) - to the girlfriend of the inmate in the Norfolk State Prison,” the ruling said.
Inmates cannot write letters to each other. The leader of the planned heist was incarcerated in Norfolk.
Cronin eventually had Coyne transferred to the Hampshire House of Correction in Northampton.
FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz declined to comment.
Coyne’s attorney, Harry L. Miles, said he would not make his client available. He would not reveal Coyne’s whereabouts or other information, including his age, or the type of crime Coyne previously committed.
“He sought no reward for his cooperation,” Miles said.
The FBI’s use of informants came under heavy criticism after it was revealed that the agency’s Boston office protected James “Whitey” Bulger from prosecution while the Irish mobster informed on his rivals; all while running a criminal organization. Bulger is now a Most Wanted fugitive.