By Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer
Monday, January 10, 2011
Former Brooksville police Detective Shawn Terry stands to identify himself to prospective jurors in Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Jr.’s courtroom in Brooksville Monday morning.
BROOKSVILLE — Michael Blue's voice wavered as he sat on the stand Monday morning and offered his account of a conversation he had last year with then-Brooksville police Detective Shawn Terry.
It was June 3, and the two men were at the Hernando County Courthouse, just about to be deposed in a drug case. Blue was working as an informant for the department, buying drugs in south Brooksville and recording the transactions with a tiny camera.
He told jurors Monday he did it to avoid drug charges of his own, and that Terry encouraged him to lie to prosecutors that day because the State Attorney doesn't like it if informants are "working off a ...