NEWS STORY The Snitch Switch In an effort to avoid being being trashed as an opportunist informant, a Portland thug turns to creative writing. BY MAUREEN O'HAGAN mohagan@wweek.com

If Isaac Harden is a snitch, he's not a very good one. The sentence he got last week was more than four years longer than the mandatory minimum.   During the Harden brothers' trial in January, the courtroom was packed with a veritable who's who of Portland hoodlums.

There's a strange new gang battle going on in Northeast Portland, but it doesn't involve guns, drugs or money. Instead, some Portland underworld figures are finding that the pen may be mightier than the sword. The root of the battle can be traced back to this gangster truism: There's nothing worse than a snitch. In December of last year a flier began circulating in certain Northeast Portland hot spots claiming Aaron Walker was going to testify against Isaac and Danny Harden in their attempted-murder trial. ["Rogue of the Week," WW, Jan. 20, 1999] "Guess who's snitchin??!!" begins the flier, which encouraged readers to attend the trial. "Don't miss this for anything! Help keep snitches out of our community." The idea, allegedly concocted by one of the Harden brothers, was that Walker might be intimidated from testifying in a packed courtroom. But Walker took the stand anyway. On Jan. 11 Danny Harden was sentenced to 90 months in prison; last week Isaac was sentenced to 144 months. Earlier this month, someone decided to turn the tables--and police think Walker may have had something to do with it. Copies of a bogus police report began making the rounds among gangbangers in Northeast Portland. In the eyes of some criminals, the report makes Isaac Harden look like an even bigger stool pigeon than Walker. The report was written in cop lingo ("At 1500 hours I read Mr. Harden his Miranda rights...") and riddled--for authenticity no doubt--with misspellings. It says that Isaac Harden broke the gangster code. In September, according to the report, Harden went to the police with information "that would take four known gang members off the streets." The report tells how Harden described to cops in detail a shooting last year at a Southeast Portland restaurant, in which four Portland Bloods, including Walker, were the culprits. "He said he was at a club called Monte Carlo on or around Aug. 6th, when four members of the 'Woodlawn and loced out Bloods' shot and tried to kill his two friends." It goes on to say that Harden even offered to wear a wire to record a conversation with Walker and provide other information regarding local "(Expensive Drug dealers) like T-Hog and Big Shawn." The phony report has been taken for the genuine article, reportedly causing quite a stir among people who thought they could trust Harden. The fact that Walker is indeed a suspect in the Monte Carlo shooting makes the document seem all the more credible. "I haven't seen anything like it before," said Deputy District Attorney Eric Bergstrom, who prosecuted the Hardens. "It's taking publicity to a new level of sophistication. It's pretty hilarious, really." It isn't so funny for Harden, who will now enter prison wearing a snitch jacket. "In custody it's worse if people think you're a snitch," Bergstrom said. "As hard as it was for Aaron Walker to testify in court, he's at least out [of prison]. Isaac is in, and he has to try to explain to people that he's not really a snitch."   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published March 3, 1999