Keith Foster will testify in drug conspiracy case, claims phone conversations were misunderstood

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Inside the boxes of evidence Keith Foster and his attorney rolled into court Wednesday are the transcripts of his wiretapped phone calls with drug dealers.

Prosecutors outlined several calls over the course of four months where Foster arranged deals for marijuana and heroin.

"I thought the government's presentation was a very thorough, very detailed and specifically set out what they've done in this case and specifically set out what they're going to prove in this case," said Legal Analyst Tony Capozzi.

But Foster's defense attorney said he was just a deputy chief doing what a good cop should do-- working sources and helping the narcotics team. He said Chief Jerry Dyer even asked Foster to look into whether Fresno had a heroin problem not long before he made contact with Rafael Guzman, the heroin source arrested in this case.

"You take information where you can find it and that's what he was doing," Marshall Hodgkins said.

The first secrets to come out of Foster's evidence boxes were the revelation that he will talk about what happened. Capozzi said that's important and necessary, especially when it comes to the explanation in the OxyContin case.

Federal agents arrested Foster a day after he got 100 pills and just after he left his nephew, Randy Flowers' house-- Foster had two pills with him. Agents found 98 pills in a bottle with Flowers.

But Foster's attorney said agents who searched Foster's house just missed Keith's missing 98 pills. He said Foster found them in a drawer after he was arrested and released, but since a judge in this case ordered him to avoid OxyContin; he flushed them down the toilet.

"It's going to come down to his credibility, but dealing with that bottle of OxyContin and destroying that is going to be tough to explain away as to why he did it," said Capozzi.

The defense said three Fresno Police Officers and the chief can back up various parts of Foster's version of events. And he claims the only civilian who will testify, his nephew Denny Foster, is doing it because he has had a grudge against Foster for more than a decade, and he's saving a lot of time off his own punishment.