NEWS
HUMBOLDT
BAY BISTRO
The Redemption and Fall of a Local Attorney
Court documents shine new light on the arrest of a local lawyer with a troubled past and a seemingly promising future By Thadeus Greenson
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thad@northcoastjournal.com
W
hen the Humboldt County Drug Task Force served search warrants simultaneously on four Eureka addresses Feb. 4 and announced it had arrested local attorney Michael Acosta while seizing dozens of firearms and various narcotics, the news spread quickly throughout the Humboldt County Courthouse. Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming had not made a charging decision in the case as of late last week but Acosta — who posted bail shortly after the arrest — appeared in court within days of the arrest to represent clients. He is scheduled to be arraigned next month. Task force agents are recommending he be charged with possessing a controlled substance for sales and owning, operating and maintaining a known drug house. If charged and convicted, he would likely face a maximum sentence of up to four years in county jail. Attempts to reach Acosta for this story were unsuccessful. A number of local lawyers contacted by the Journal expressed some surprise and sadness that Acosta was arrested with a former client amid a firearm and drug trafficking investigation. While Acosta has some issues in his past, they said he seemed to have overcome them and had shown glimpses of a very promising legal career. While all requested anonymity speaking about a colleague’s potential criminal prosecution, one added that — based on the information they’d seen — the case against Acosta doesn’t seem particularly strong. According to a statement of probable cause filed by task force agents to support a search warrant, the investigation began in September of 2019, when a Humboldt
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 • northcoastjournal.com
County supervisor contacted the task force about multiple complaints from neighbors of Acosta’s home in the 4000 block of Cedar Street. They reportedly described “non-stop short-term traffic coming and going from the residence, as well as suspected drug dealing from the house and a trailer parked in front of the residence.” A couple of months later, according to the document, agents began a surveillance operation and “immediately saw traffic consistent with the neighbor complaints.” Agents allegedly observed Acosta and his “long-time girlfriend” Sarah Carroll consistently meeting briefly with people inside and outside the residence. They saw a known “heroin trafficker” enter and leave the residence within a few minutes and pulled him over a few blocks away. But they didn’t find any drugs, according to the document, just that he was driving on a suspended license with “drug paraphernalia.” The surveillance ultimately confirmed there was a lot of short-term traffic at the residence and suspicious activity but a pair of related traffic stops didn’t find narcotics. But agents found nine confidential informants who — enticed by cash payouts, the prospect of leniency in a criminal case or just a desire for the “betterment of the community” — came forward to make allegations about drug activity. Several of the summaries of these interviews were filed confidentially with the search warrant and aren’t available for public view, but the other six largely focus on Kevin Haberman, a former client of Acosta’s who goes by “Listo” and two informants identified as one of the largest suppliers of heroin in the Eureka area. (Haberman remains wanted in the case.) One informant seeking leniency in
another criminal case told agents Haberman had a number of firearms, including AR-15s and multiple pistols — which he would have been legally prohibited from possessing as a felon — and he stored some of them at Acosta’s home, according to the document. This was echoed by another source and a third allegedly “provided information into “the gun trafficking involvement of Acosta.” (That “information” is filed in a separate, confidential document.) Because Acosta represented Haberman in at least one case in which he was convicted of a felony, the attorney should have known his former client was legally prohibited from possessing guns, according to the statement. The only source who the public portion of the document indicates provided first-hand information implicating Acosta told investigators they were at the Cedar Street residence when they observed Acosta with a “teener bag” of methamphetamine — about one-sixteenth of an ounce — and a handgun. According to the picture painted by the statement in support of a search warrant, it appears Haberman became the center of the task force’s investigation and the extent of Acosta’s alleged involvement is unclear. However, because the task force isn’t recommending he be charged with firearms possession, it seems they were unable to substantiate the drug trafficking allegation, though a press release on the case notes the investigation is ongoing. When agents raided the four properties Feb. 4, they seized nearly a half pound of suspected heroin and dozens of firearms — including assault rifles and a bumpstock — from the Home Drive residence of Richard Lee Haberman, Kevin Haberman’s father. Neither the press release
