HOPEWELL, Va. — Six years after losing her son to a drug overdose while working as a confidential informant, a mother is fighting for change.
“I just think that being a confidential informant you have to have guidelines and you have to have checks and balances and you can not take advantage of someone because they are in the disease of addiction,” said Donna Watson. “They need to be treated with dignity just like everyone. They just can’t be thrown away like trash or they don’t have to follow the rules because they are doing something,” said Watson.
Troy Howlett died on July 30, 2018.
The struggling addict was trying to stay out of jail for a drug violation, so he was working with the Hopewell Police Department as an informant.
However, text messages purportedly between Troy and the Hopewell detective he was working with undercover showed he failed his drug tests at least three times in between his controlled buys of illegal drugs.
On Wednesday, Watson and other families met with members of the General Assembly the Department of Criminal Justice Services, the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, the Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association, and the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police to talk about safeguarding informants while continuing to use them to fight the growing drug problem.