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A federal judge on Thursday dropped a criminal charge against a U.S. DEA agent who in 2023 caused a collision that killed a Salem cyclist.
The decision closes the criminal case of agent Samuel Landis, 39, nearly six weeks after U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane signaled at a hearing that he planned to dismiss the single state charge of criminally negligent homicide.
The dismissal means Landis is free from prosecution and possible prison time for speeding through a central Salem neighborhood, running a stop sign and causing the collision that killed Marganne Allen, 53, on March 28, 2023.
“There is no question that, in hindsight, Agent Landis greatly miscalculated the relative safety of driving through the stop sign at issue,” McShane said in a 12-page written opinion filed in Eugene U.S. District Court.
But the judge found that Landis is entitled to immunity from prosecution because he reasonably believed he needed to run the stop sign to perform his federal duties and that it was safe to do so, the judge said.
“That agent Landis was wrong does not make his honest belief objectively unreasonable,” McShane said.
READ: Judge’s opinion and order
Landis’ attorneys and Marion County prosecutors didn’t disagree over any fact relevant to the case.
The agent was part of a surveillance team that was gathering information about a suspected fentanyl trafficker. Landis ran the stop sign at the intersection of Southeast Leslie and High Streets at about 18 miles per hour, according to court records. Allen had the right of way as she cycled down a hill on High Street through the intersection.
“They agree that in running the stop sign, Agent Landis was negligent. They agree that although Agent Landis was negligent, he acted with no malice or ill intent,” McShane said in his filing. They also agree that Allen’s “untimely death is a tragic accident that could have been avoided.”
The single point of disagreement was a legal issue – whether it was “necessary and proper” for Landis to run the stop sign to enforce U.S. drug laws, McShane said. “The answer to that question is ‘yes.’”
Over 125 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal officer can’t be prosecuted for a state criminal charge based on actions they took while performing their official duties.
Landis’ attorneys successfully argued in December 2023 to have the case moved to federal court out of Marion County Circuit Court so he could raise that defense, which does not exist in state court.
At the November hearing, DEA agents and Salem police officers testified that drug couriers routinely take actions to avoid surveillance, including driving at high speeds, pulling over suddenly to see if any trailing vehicles do the same or cutting across several traffic lanes to make sudden turns.
For that reason, the surveillance team on the day of the crash was made up of “numerous agents driving numerous unmarked vehicles,” McShane said. Such teams regularly rotate who is closest behind and has sight of the suspect to avoid being spotted.
“The DEA is currently engaged in a longstanding battle against Mexican cartels flooding the United States with fentanyl. In this battle, agents often build cases over many months. Agents attempt to find the sources of fentanyl, often working their way from the small-time user to the supplier, and then to the supplier’s supplier, and so on,” according to the judge’s order. “Undercover surveillance operations like the one at issue are vital to the DEA’s mission.”
“Due to the nature of surveillance operations – a covert game of cat and mouse, with the mouse regularly taking counter-surveillance actions – each agent testified that those involved in undercover surveillance operations must often break traffic laws,” he said. Agents may have to suddenly cut across multiple traffic lanes to follow a suspect, or those who fall behind may have to speed or run stop signs to catch up.
Just before the crash, the suspect suddenly cut across at least one traffic lane to turn right from Liberty Street onto Mission Street. Several agents, including Landis, couldn’t safely make the same turn and instead continued north on Liberty. They each tried to loop around onto Mission and rejoin the rest of their team.
Traffic investigators pegged Landis’ speed down Leslie Street at 37 miles per hour in his Dodge Ram pickup truck.
Home video cameras captured Agent Todd Hoagland about a block ahead of Landis “significantly” slow down, slowly roll through the stop sign without stopping and turn right onto High Street, McShane said. “Several seconds later, Agent Landis rolled through the same stop sign at a greater rate of speed.”
Landis testified that he saw the stop sign and slowed down and leaned forward on the steering wheel to look around the truck’s “pillar,” which runs along the windshield and can block a driver’s vision. He also testified that he thought he could see around a retaining wall on the northwest corner of the intersection and safely proceed through the intersection without stopping.
Landis also testified that he thought it was his job to go through the intersection without stopping and that he needed to “act quickly” to rejoin his team, according to McShane’s filling.
Marion County prosecutors countered that because there was no active emergency or plan to arrest the suspect that day, “there is at least a question” whether Landis’ decision to run the stop sign was reasonable. That was especially true, prosecutors argued, because the streets at the time were wet, it was an overcast day and the crash occurred in a residential neighborhood.
But McShane said prosecutors didn’t cite any previous court decision where a judge found that a federal agent must be responding to an active emergency to raise an immunity defense. Instead, agents are entitled to immunity if there is no evidence that they were acting beyond their authority or in a way they could not honestly consider reasonable, he said.
Prosecutors also cited DEA policy, which instructs that “safety of the public and the agent have higher priority than any enforcement activity. Traffic and parking laws will not be violated to the detriment of public and personal safety.”
But Landis’ belief that he could safely run the stop sign was not unreasonable just because he “tragically” turned out to be wrong, McShane said. “Had Agent Landis been traveling at, say, 50 miles per hour rather than 18 miles per hour, the outcome here would likely be different.”
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Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
