The family of a college student turned drug informant is suing the police for his wrongful death after he was found dead with a bullet in his head and rocks in his backpack.
Tammy Sadek believes her son Andrew Sadek signed his own death warrant when he agreed to become a narc after cops caught him selling just $80 of marijuana in 2013.
The 20-year-old worked with the drugs task force for months before he disappeared in May, 2014. His body was found the following month in the Red River, North Dakota.
Richland County Sheriff's Department claimed the student committed suicide after an autopsy found his manner of death was 'undetermined,' according to the complaint brought by John and Tammy Sadek.
But his parents insist their son would never have taken his own life and believe Andrew was murdered in a drug deal gone wrong.
I think [Andrew] was trying to get his quota, and he went to the wrong person,' Tammy told The Daily Beast. 'I firmly believe he didn't do this to himself. There was no depression. No note. I've gone through everything.
'He had plans for that weekend [he went missing],' she added. 'He had plans for his life.'
An investigative report in January 2015 said the drug task force SEMCA, which recruited Sadek, acted appropriately.
But his death is raising questions about the use of young, low-level drug offenders as confidential informants and if they should they be given more detailed information about the dangers.
'There are more students in danger,' Tammy Sadek told KVLY after the report was released. 'SEMCA is alive and well, doing what they please.'
The family have now filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the sheriff's department, deputy Jason Weber, and the county of failing to ensure their son's safety.
We filed the lawsuit today, two years from the day Andrew's body was discovered, hoping to achieve accountability for those who put Andrew in harm's way,' said Tim O'Keeffe, one of two Fargo attorneys for the Sadek family.
The Sadeks are asking for unspecified economic damages, including the cost of the memorial, and non-economic damages related to mental anguish, emotional distress, grief and loss of companionship.
His mother added that she wants more details about her son's controlled buys and on the investigation into his killer.
'That's why we're forced into this lawsuit. A lawsuit is not the North Dakota way. But this is our last grasp at hoping to get some answers,' Tammy Sadek told The Daily Beast.
According to a report into SEMCA's actions after the college student's death, in April 2013 Sadek sold two small quantities of marijuana that together totaled $80 to a SEMCA informant on the North Dakota State College of Science campus, where Sadek attended classes.
In November of that year, SEMCA agents searched Sadek's dorm room and found a plastic grinder with marijuana residue that Sadek confessed belonged to him.
During an interview at a police station in Wahpeton, the report states, Sadek was told about the charges he was facing and agreed to become a confidential informant in order that the charges be dropped or eliminated.
Footage of the interrogation showed Richland County sheriff's deputy Jason Weber warning Sadek that he was facing 40 years in prison and a $40,000 fine for his first offence - selling $80 of marijuana.
'Obviously, you're probably not going to get 40 years, but is it a good possibility you're going to get prison time if you don't help yourself out? Yeah, there is,' Weber said.
'That's probably not a way to start off your young adult life and career, right?
'What I'm going to ask for you to do is do some buys for me? then depending upon how you do? a lot of this could go away.
Weber told the student that with two felonies pending against him, he would need to carry out controlled drug buys with three or four people.
'That fair enough? It sounds like you already got two for sure you can do. It's just a matter of doing two more,' he said, encouraging Sadek to seek out more drug dealers as he warned him to keep silent.
'Try not to tell your roommate or anybody, because the more people that know? people are going to think you're a narc,' he warned.
Sadek agreed to act as an informant and did not tell anyone about his undercover work - not even his parents or a lawyer.
Within six months of making the deal, he was found dead.
Deputy Sheriff Weber, now the interim task force supervisor, won't say whether Sadek was specifically told of the dangerous nature of the work he would be doing.
The document that Sadek signed to become a confidential informant did not explicitly state the potential risks.
After the interrogation, Sadek bought marijuana on three separate occasions under the direction of a SEMCA agent between November 2013 and January 2014.
After the third buy, Sadek stopped communicating with SEMCA agents, who tried to push him to make more narcotics purchases, the report says.
Early in May, he was reported missing and his parents went on television to plead for his safe return.
But the following month, his body was fished out of the Red River near Breckenridge, Minnesota. Authorities estimate that he had died two days after he disappeared.
'Somebody knows something,' his mother had said. 'They need to have the strength and courage to come forward and speak up.'
The review, ordered by SEMCA's Executive Board and conducted by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, outlined four minor recommendations.
This included requiring briefings before informants carried out controlled buys and requested an official supervisor be appointed to the task force. It also recommended assigning a North Dakota BCI agent to SEMCA.
The review found no wrongdoing in the task force's conduct and did not give details about the investigation into Sadek's death.
'That's how drug task forces work all over the world,' said Weber, the task force supervisor. 'You're always constantly trying to find the bigger person and go to that person's supplier.'
But Tammy Sadek believes that even though the probe was billed as independent, members of the law enforcement community 'have each other's back'.
The use of confidential informants to conduct buys for law enforcement on college campuses has drawn scrutiny recently.
U.S. Justice Department guidelines state that authorities should consider the risk of harm to a potential l informant, but do not say that the person should be informed of the risks.
North Dakota Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Liz Brocker declined to comment on any policies or procedures that might be in place for drug task forces in the state.
Los Angeles-based Loyola Law School professor Alexandra Natapoff said the use of criminal informants 'is almost entirely unregulated' across the country, though that is beginning to change.
The Florida Legislature in 2009 passed 'Rachel's Law,' requiring police to adopt policies to protect informants, after 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman was shot to death in 2008 while working as an informant.
That law is 'only the beginning of the protections that we need for young, vulnerable informants,' Natapoff said.
American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman Jennifer Cook said informants are doing a dangerous part of law enforcement, without the training.
'The safety risks associated with informant use can far outweigh the benefits,' she said.
Last year, UMass-Amherst Chancellor announced the end of a controversial UMass police program that worked to turn students arrested for narcotics into informants.
It followed the death of Eric Sinacori, a 20-year-old UMass junior who had become an informant after being caught selling Molly and LSD to an undercover officer. In 2013, he overdosed on heroine in his off-campus apartment.
In spite of finding a hypodermic needle during a search, officers did not arrest Sinacori or inform his parents, something that his mother, Francesca, believed had allowed his addiction to fester.
Drug investigators need to be more explicit about the dangers they face, said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
You have to really say, 'This is the risk: You're entering a world that's dangerous, and you might end up dead,'' Harrington said.
Tammy Sadek believes her son was scared into becoming a confidential informant.
'I would like to see (task forces) stop using kids,' she said. 'I know it's common, but these are just little fish.'
Other people who knew Sadek are shocked by what happened.
'He was a gentle soul,' said Kristi Brandt, principal of Valley City High School, from which Sadek graduated.
Lawyers for the family sent a letter to federal authorities in April asking the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI to investigate the case.
The Justice Department said it was reviewing the case. There was no response from the FBI, the family's lawyers said.
A spokeswoman for the North Dakota attorney general's office did not return email messages Monday seeking comment.
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