Ex-Educator Seeks Reversal On MoneyLaundering Charge

NORFOLK, Va. - (01/24/06) – A former stand-out educator inVirginia and Maryland asked a federal judge Monday to acquit her onmoney laundering charges in a big east coast drug conspiracy. Alawyer for Pamela Hoffler-Riddick told the judge that thedefendant’s ex-boyfriend, a key witness in her trial, liedand contradicted himself when he testified at her October trial.Hoffler-Riddick claims she didn’t know the money shedeposited and withdrew from her Virginia Educators CU account forher boyfriend was drug money. She is one of 40 defendants chargedin 'Operation Blowfish,' which busted a ring that distributed about$20 million in marijuana and cocaine up and down the east coast,according to authorities. Hoffler-Riddick was once a standouteducator in Virginia Beach and in Norfolk, then later in Maryland,where she lost her $138,000-a-year job after her arrest lastyear.