Entrapped

Then it happened. Police officers moved in from behind. "They grabbed me and slammed me on the ground," Curry recalled. Still in front of TGI Friday's, she saw Jay once more. Only then did Curry learn that he was a narcotics detective.

Murray would be commended six days later. "Great Job!" Sgt. Ken Haberland and Lt. James Futch scribbled on the commendation submitted to Murray's personnel file.

Curry would never again hear from Mackey.

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In court, Murray claimed that Mackey was paid $300 for the information that led to Curry's arrest. That paltry amount seems to lend support to Curry's claim that Mackey set her up in retaliation for not dating him. During their brief relationship, Mackey gave Curry $150 for an electric bill, money for gas, and gifts from the Bahamas. In addition, he bought her dinner and drinks.

At best, Mackey broke even with the $300 payday. It's unlikely his interest was financial. During a September 30, 2001, hearing in Curry's trial, Murray claimed to be unaware of Mackey's romantic relationship with Curry.

"Do you talk to CIs about sexual encounters?" Judge Ilona M. Holmes asked the detective.

"No sexual encounters after the initial meetings, because sometimes confidential informants run into people on their own, you know, before any police involvement," Murray replied, seeming to suggest that prior sexual involvement would be tolerable. "Once that contact is made, we advise the confidential informant that there's to be no more additional contact with this person unless there's police presence or police control. And we are pretty adamant about the instructions."

"Do you know Ms. Curry is alleging that she was entrapped?" Holmes asked.

"Yes."

"And she has testified to some sort of sexual relationship with the alleged CI?"

"Yes."

"Was contact monitored by police?" Holmes asked.

"Was the CI monitored as far as phone conversations? Yes. And once the investigation started, we initiated full-time monitoring of the CI. We instructed the confidential informant not to have any contact of any sort without our control..."

"I think what is a little concerning for this court is the allegation of sexual contact between her and the confidential informant," Holmes said.

"No," Murray replied. "I'm unaware of any prior relationship and any relationship during the investigation. Right after this hearing we had here, I confronted the confidential informant, and the CI adamantly denied any sexual involvement with Ms. Curry."

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In the months and years after Curry's arrest, Mackey -- who continued to work as an informant for the Hollywood police on as many as 20 cases -- proved to be an ambitious ladies' man with a flair for roughing up his women. On August 2, 2000, less than two weeks after Curry's arrest, North Miami Beach Police reported to Manors Court Apartments at 13890 NE Third Ct. after reports of a verbal dispute.

Mackey and his girlfriend (who is not named in the report) were arguing in the parking lot. Mackey allegedly grabbed the woman's hair and took her purse, which contained $3,000 in cash and some credit cards, then fled in his car. Five days later, Mackey surrendered to police and was charged with strong-arm robbery. "I didn't hit her," Mackey told the officers. "I just took her purse." He bonded out the next day, finally pleading guilty on January 25, 2002. Adjudication was withheld and the sentence suspended after Mackey agreed to enter a domestic-violence intervention program.

The program didn't help much. On June 23, 2003, one month after having his driver's license suspended following a third DUI offense, Mackey allegedly beat up 36-year-old Christine Delarese Stubbs-Bodie, whom he had married using the name on his Bahamian papers, Lorenzo Bodie. After striking Stubbs-Bodie at an apartment at 2525 N. Ocean Dr. in Hollywood, Mackey took her cell phone.

At first, Stubbs-Bodie didn't want to file a police report because her husband "knew some police officers in the city of Hollywood and she was afraid that she might be retaliated against," according to a statement she gave Hollywood police on November 3, 2003. Stubbs-Bodie declined to comment when reached by New Times.

The following May, Aventura Police Officer Emilio Perez saw a blue Ford Expedition with an Illinois tag weaving in traffic on Biscayne Boulevard, nearly sideswiping a car. Perez stopped the SUV. The black man in the driver's seat told the officer that he didn't have his license. His name, he said, was Lorenzo Lee Bodie. "I never had a driver's license in the United States, only in the Bahamas," he told the officer. Perez went back to his cruiser to verify the information. The Expedition checked out fine, apparently on loan from a friend in Illinois, but the officer discovered that Lorenzo Lee Bodie was an alias for Lorenzo Leon Mackey. His driver's license was suspended.

The officer informed Mackey, who was standing near the police cruiser, that he was under arrest. "No!" he shouted. Mackey turned and walked toward his vehicle, then began to run. He started to climb into the driver's seat. Perez fired his Taser at Mackey, sending an electrical current through the man's body. Mackey fell to the ground.