WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.& [PART 2]

Involvement of Politicians, Judges, Lawyers, & Police in the Drug Business

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NOTES: I made a few corrections to spellings but left the original document mainly untouched. Some dates are in YYMMDD format. These files are only a portion of the entire WORMSCAN.& file. I had to break it up due to length. There are hundreds of pages. Notice the change in format. There are much more details added to this file.

This is a continuation of the file named WORMSCAN.&.

WORMSCAN: WORMSCAN.& [PART 1]

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890803, St Louis, MO, Matt Elrod. Marijuana claims another
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 08:09:14 -0800
From: Creator@IslandNet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: Re: St Louis radio interview
Message-ID:

Phil wrote:

Killing the 10 percent of the population that uses/traffics in illegal drugs would cost trillions of dollars to carry out. Because illegal drug use is most prevalent among young adults, the same group that is most likely to be gainful employed and raising families ...

Strange that after calling for the death penalty for smugglers Newt said:

"As a further solution to the underclass problem, he said, ''The second thing you have to do, frankly, is reestablish the strength of the family ...

 I'm not talking about some return to a Norman Rockwell, Puritan  environment or whatever the exaggeration of this comment will lead to.

"But I am saying to all of you something that Pat Moynihan said in 1965, which is a society in which young males grow up without authority structures and without authority figures is a society that is asking for destruction and chaos.''

At 5 a.m. on August 3, 1989, police came to the home of Bruce Lavoie, 34, a machinist with a wife and three children. Without announcing themselves and with no evidence that Lavoie was armed, police smashed the door in with a battering ram. They had a search warrant based on an informant's tip that was 20 months old. As he arose from his bed, Lavoie was shot to death as his son watched. A single marijuana cigarette was found.

A single-parent family was left behind.

Matt.

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900428, Costa Rica, The Orange County Register. Costa Rica is The following article was originally printed in the Saturday, April 28, 1990 issue of *The Orange County Register* on page A18.

COSTA RICA MAY BAN IRAN-CONTRA FIGURES

Legislature blames scandal for increasing nation's drug traffic

Reuters

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly recommended permanently banning former US officials involved in the Iran-contra affair from entering the nation, saying the clandestine Nicaraguan rebel arms network had increased drug trafficking in Costa Rica.

In a 50-2 vote Thursday evening, the assembly approved the recommendations made in a report by a special congressional drug commission.

Among its 32 proposals, the commission suggested banning five Iran-contra figures, including former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Lewis Tambs.

Along with Tambs, the report named former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, Lt. Col. Oliver North, ex-CIA station chief Joe Fernandez and arms dealer Richard Secord.

Citing the Iran-contra record and testimony to the commission given during a year-long investigation, the report said they indirectly had contributed to Costa Rica's drug-trafficking woes by bolstering a clandestine arms network that subsequently was penetrated by cocaine traffickers.

Costa Rica serves as a transshipment point for South American cocaine flown in aircraft too small to make the flight to the United States without stopping to refuel or unload their cargo for transshipment by other means.

The report also recommended that contra collaborator John Hull be stripped of his Costa Rica citizenship. Hull, accused of murder and violating Costa Rican neutrality, jumped bail and skipped the country last year and now lives in his native Indiana.

Costa Rican courts have instructed the Foreign Ministry to request Hull's extradition from the United States.

The report also recommended that former Public Security Minister Benjamin Piza be censured for his participation in the construction of a clandestine airstrip used to supply the contras.

None of the commission's total 32 recommendations are binding.

END OF ARTICLE

-------------------------------

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901217, Lockerbie, Scotland, Primary source here is from Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 6 Num. 70

 ======================================

("Quid coniuratio est?")

-----------------------------------------------------------------

LOCKERBIE: THE INTERFOR REPORT

==============================

[Primary source here is from Barron's, 12/17/90, "Unwitting Accomplices?" by Maggie Mahar.]

There is a country south of the United States called Nicaragua. The United States has been involved there for decades. In the early part of this century, a General Sandino down there fought against the United Fruit Company (if my memory serves me correctly.) So that is where the name "Sandinistas" comes from: it is derived from the name of the Nicaraguan hero (to some) General Sandino.

There was a dictator down there named Somoza. FDR said once that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's *our* son of a bitch." Somoza had a son who also became a dictator in Nicaragua, and the U.S. owned him just like we owned his father. [Source: *The CIA's Greatest Hits* by Mark Zepezauer]

The people (or the commies) overthrew the second Somoza in 1979. In the 1980s, Reagan-Bush wanted to go to war down there so we could get control of Nicaragua back from the commies (or the people). But the Congress, which had some balls in those days, wouldn't allow it.

So what happened? Reagan-Bush went around the law and funded a "covert" war against the people (or the commies) who controlled Nicaragua. (They should have consulted with bold-as-brass Bill Clinton, who just "do as he please" in such matters.) One way they funded their illegal war was, after the planes flew the weapons down there, they had the planes fly back with drugs. Readers of Conspiracy Nation know the pattern: guns get traded for drugs and the banks get a piece of the action.

But the CIA, who helped run this illegal war of the 1980s, are big-time drug dealers: they are worldwide. To paraphrase Meyer Lansky, drug kings CIA are "bigger than U.S. Steel."

Ever on the alert for ways to fund their operations, the CIA got into a separate deal, according to a private-investigation firm called INTERFOR Inc. Juval Aviv, head of the firm, helped Pan Am with its own investigation of the crash of flight 103 near Lockerbie, Scotland. Here is what seems to have happened, based on Aviv's report:

Monzer Al-Kassar, a Syrian drugs and arms smuggler, had started a heroin-smuggling operation at the Frankfurt, Germany airport. Al-Kassar "reportedly received $1.2 million from a Swiss company controlled by Albert A. Hakim and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord." These folks, in turn, were part of the Iran-Contra network. So it seems that this Al-Kassar is not just your average drug smuggler.

Back around this time, some U.S. citizens were being held hostage in Lebanon. A deal seems to have been struck: Al-Kassar gets to keep smuggling heroin into the United States if he will use his influence to help get the American hostages released.

Al-Kassar was big-time: not so big as CIA, but still having an impressive underground network of his own. "Al-Kassar also used his drug-arms routes to purchase and convey arms to the Nicaraguan Contras." (The Contras were the "secret" army being funded and supplied by Reagan-Bush with the help of Oliver North.)

The INTERFOR Report spells it out like this: "[T]ons of heroin [flowed] into the arms of U.S. citizens... in the hopes that these terrorists might repay the favor by releasing six hostages [in Lebanon]."

So to help fund an illegal war in Nicaragua, Al-Kassar got himself a sweet deal. He seems to have been in a similar position to that of the late Barry Seal, who also got a sweet deal thanks to CIA. In fact, many drug smugglers apparently can say a big "thank you" to CIA for lending them a hand. The CIA employs criminals, and these criminals get a "perk" -- if they get caught, they can often just say to DEA, "Hey. I'm CIA, baby."

Ahmed Jibril is the head of the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. In Conspiracy Nation, Vol. 6 Num. 69 was mentioned "...an Iranian Airbus, with 290 people on board, was shot down by an American warship in the Gulf in the summer of 1988." Jibril was under pressure to avenge the downing of that aircraft.

Jibril, it is alleged, persuaded Al-Kassar to substitute a bomb for the usual heroin. "The Samsonite case was then substituted for one of the checked suitcases..."

You will recall that, in CN 6.69, the London Telegraph reported that:

"Within hours of Pan Am flight 103 devastating the Scottish border village of Lockerbie in December 1988, a team of American secret agents was methodically working its way through the crash site."

By the following morning a small area on the outskirts of the town had been sealed off. The Americans removed a suitcase full of heroin and some incriminating documents from a U.S. undercover agent, who died in the crash, and was taking part in a "sting" drug smuggling operation in Lebanon.

This seems to confirm the heroin-link in the Lockerbie tragedy.

CIA veteran Victor Marchetti favors the conclusions of the INTERFOR Report: "I have always thought the essence of the INTERFOR Report was true," he is quoted as saying.

-------------------------------

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941022, New Orleans, LA, Washington Post. Oliver North claims to
Date: Fri Feb 16, 1996 11:44 pm CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org

TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: CIA Contra Crack Connection

From: Bob Witanek
Subject: Police
To: JLowery@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu, Freematt@aol.com

9 Cops Indicted in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (Reuter) - Nine New Orleans police officers, including one arrested earlier for ordering a murder, were indicted for drug trafficking by a federal grand jury Wednesday.

Eastern Louisiana district U.S. Attorney Eddie J. Jordan said the officers, who face 15 years to life in prison if convicted, were charged with protecting the storage and movement of more than 130 kilograms of cocaine.

One of the men, Len Davis, was arrested Monday after Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretaps revealed he plotted and then celebrated the Oct. 13 death of a woman who had filed a brutality complaint against him for pistol-whipping a teenager.

Other officers indicted were Davis' patrol partner, Sammy L. Williams Jr., Christopher Evans, Adam E. Dees, Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez, Keith Johnson, Brian K. Brown, Sheldon Polk and Larry Smith Jr., a juvenile division officer.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Neil Gallagher said the officers protected a warehouse where the cocaine was stored and were paid in excess of $97,000 in bribes. Some of the officers used official New Orleans police cars in the conspiracy to distribute the cocaine.

He said the drugs were under FBI special agents' control at all times and were not distributed on the streets of New Orleans.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Richard Pennington, who took charge of the department in October, was briefed on the investigation and provided valuable assistance, Gallagher and Jordan said. His predecessor, Joseph Orticke, was not informed of the lengthy investigation, police sources told Reuters.

Additional information is not available because the investigation and federal grand jury probe are continuing, Jordan said.

Davis, 30, was arrested Monday by the FBI for conspiring to violate the civil rights of 32-year-old Kim Groves, who was shot to death.

Transmitted: 94-12-07 15:43:17 EST

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950304, San Francisco, CA, San Jose Mercury News (AP).

San Francisco (AP) - Reporters have no right to see police files of public complaints of officer misconduct, even with the officers' names left out, a state appeals court ruled Friday. State law provides only for disclosure of data showing the number, type and disposition of complaints against officers, said the 1st District Court of Appeal.

That law should be interpreted "liberally in favor of disclosure" said Presiding Justice Ming Chin in the 3-0 ruling. But he said a request by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for police files from the city of Richmond was too broad.

State law "imposes confidentiality upon peace officer personnel records of investigations of citizens' complaints," with limited exceptions, Chin said.

A lawyer for the weekly newspaper said the ruling was troubling.

"How police are doing their jobs, including disciplining themselves, is receding into secrecy, and that's just not healthy," James Wheaton said.

He said the ruling appeared to entitle the public only to a limited amount of statistical information about police complaints and not descriptions of cases and other pertinent details. If a police department doesn't keep statistics on complaints of racial abuse, no information on the subject will be released.

Assistant City Attorney Everett Jenkins said Richmond regularly releases statistics about police complaints but opposed release about additional information from complaint files, even with the officers' names removed.

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950407, New York City, NY, NT Times.
Date: Fri Apr 07, 1995 7:01 pm CST
From: drctalk l
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: drctalk-l@netcom.com

TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: NY TIMES on Police Corruption

Times reports today (4/7 s.B pg. 1) "Three More In Precinct Are Accused"
Lead reads:

"The window on corruption in the troubled 30th Precinct in Harlem widened slightly yesterday with perjury accusations against a sergeant and two officers who were charged with lying about arrests that were made illegally and about evidence that they seized unconstitutionally to put suspected drug dealers behind bars.

"The arrests, announced by D.A. Robert Morgenthau of Manhattan and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, raised to 33 the number of officers implicated in the past year in the most sweeping scandal in one precinct in city history. It has touched more than one of every six of the 192 officers assigned to the precinct, which has come to be known as the 'Dirty Thirty'."

"But unlike most of the previously arrested 30th Precinct officers, who have been accused of operating like gangs, stealing drugs, guns and money, beating up dealers and sometimes breaking down doors, those arrested yesterday were described by some officials as merely overzealous officers who had broken the law to enforce it, and then had lied about what had happened."

"The authorities said that the officers had joined others in forcing their way into drug dealers' apartments and ransacking them without search warrants to find hidden drugs or weapons, then had falsified arrest records and backed them up backed them up with testimony, saying that they had entered the suspect's apartments legally and had only taken evidence left out in plain view."

The rest gets better with Bratton defending the officers, citing the "extraordinarily difficult task" of enforcing drug laws. Bratton also estimates that "only" about 1% of NYC's cops are corrupt. (Please hold your laughter until the end).

I think we ought to push on the corruption issue. The Times also reports today (s.B pg. 2) that a 13 yr. veteran cop from the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn was convicted yesterday of drug trafficking. Corruption is clearly the inevitable result of prohibition, and it worries a lot of people who are currently pressing for civilian review boards. They are barking up the wrong tree, as we know.

If anyone wants the full text of either article, please email me, I didn't want to clutter the line w/them. If enough people want them, I will post them. Also, if this posting was in itself inappropriate for this forum, someone please let me know, I'm not looking to cause problems.

Adam J. Smith PEACE, Adam

Peace 2000

ajsmitty@bu.edu

-----------------------------

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950414, Puerto Rico.
Article: misc.activism.progressive.21959
Message-ID: <3MUQO5$IRT@NEWS.MISSOURI.EDU>
From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: PUERTO RICAN JOURNAL
CRITICA: A JOURNAL OF PUERTO RICAN POLICY & POLITICS
Drug Trafficking in Puerto Rico:

Narcopolitics, Tax Havens, Migration and National Security
Juan M. Garcia Passalacqua

For over a month now, Puerto Rico has been taken by storm by controversies filling all front pages on the corrupting effects of the drug trade on local lawyering and politics.

It has become an urgent issue for the future of Puerto Rico.

Most recently, for example, a legislative commission held close hearings and dropped a bombshell by indiscriminately announcing the names of five Puerto Rican legislators that they contended had some drug connections: representatives Nicolas Nogueras and Freddie Valentin of the governing New Progressive Party (PNP), senators Marco A. Rigau and Antonio Fas Alzamora and representative Jose Enrique Arrar_s of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).

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950510, Beaver Dam, WI, Wisconsin State Journal.
Date: Fri May 19, 1995 11:24 pm CST
From: drctalk l
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: drctalk-l@netcom.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Slain by narcs for 3 grams

From the Wisconsin State Journal, May 10 1995

WRONGFUL DEATH CLAIM FILED IN DRUG RAID

Victim's parents call shooting unjustified

By Richard W. Jaeger regional Reporter

The parents of Scott Bryant, who was killed by a law enforcement bullet in a raid on his trailer home north of Beaver Dam, have filed a wrongful death claim with Dodge County.

The claim by Boyd and Shirley Bryant seeks damages from Dodge County on behalf of their slain son and his family. The Bryants claim a Dodge County sheriff's official was not justified in shooting and killing their son.

Bryant, 29, was killed April 17 by a bullet to the chest. Preliminary reports show that Dodge County Sheriff Detective Robert Neuman fired the fatal shot.

Neuman told investigators he could not remember pulling the trigger on his police Beretta.

The State attorney general's office has completed its investigation of the shooting and sent its reports to Dodge County District Attorney Patricia Remirez and Sheriff Stephen Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said he could not comment on the report until it is reviewed by Ramirez.

A spokesman for Ramirez said the District Attorney had not read the report and was not ready to comment.

The District attorney has the authority to file charges in the shooting if necessary.

James Haney, a spokesman for the state attorney general, said the state investigation will not make any recommendations as to charges in the case. He also would not reveal the findings of the investigation.

Beaver Dam Attorney Scott Rasmussen said he had been promised a copy of the investigation report by the district attorney and by the state attorney general since he had court approval to investigate possible wrongful actions in Bryant's death.

He said Tuesday that he had not seen the report but would proceed to file the wrongful death claim without it.

"We will be claiming that the shooting was both negligent and an intentional act. Both of those are questions for a jury to determine," Rasmussen said.

The Beaver Dam attorney said he expects the claim to be denied by the county, opening the way for him to file a lawsuit.

Rasmussen said he will file the suit in federal court and be asking for specific damages. He has six months to file the suit after the claim is denied.

He would not comment on possible criminal action by the district attorney because he had not seen the investigation report.

"We do know from the preliminary report that the officer who shot Scott said he couldn't remember how. And there appear to be conflicting statements from witnesses to the shooting," Rasmussen said.

Neighbors to Bryant's trailer home in the North Hills Trailer Court said officers kicked in the door without knocking. One neighbor said she heard "a kick, a pop, and a scream" and the next thing she knew Bryant was dead.

Officers say they knocked and announced they were serving a warrant for drugs.

According to the preliminary report, Neuman said he had his gun drawn as he followed fellow deputy James Rohr into the trailer. Rohr said he knocked first.

The deputies found a small amount of marijuana in the trailer in the trailer along with two .22-caliber rifle and five pellet guns.

-----------------------------------------------------------

(End of Article)

I have not been able to learn much more. The DA's office says they will turn it over to another County's prosecutor.

Scott Rasmussen tells me the Officer admitted the gun was cocked when he entered the apartment. The Atty general's office won't even send me their press release. Very little in the press. Guess that's what happens if you get killed on a bad news day. (the night before OKC).

-------------------------

On Tuesday, 30 May, beginning at 8:00 a vigil will commence in memory of Scott Bryant, a Beaver Dam Wisconsin man gunned down in front of his 7 year old son by a Dodge County sheriff.

The vigil will be held on the 100 block of West Washington St. in Madison Wisconsin in front of the Lorraine Building which houses the State Dept. of Justice.

Scott was killed by a sheriff who (a) doesn't remember pulling the trigger and (b) thought Scott's remote control was a firearm. After killing Scott in front of his 7 year old son, police were able to find only 3 GRAMS of marijuana. The District Atty for Dodge County has yet to begin an investigation into the events surrounding Mr. Bryant's death.

Date: 27 Jul 95 04:06:33 EDT
From: Tom Ender <73511.3611@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: Marijuana MURDER !
To:

Hemp HOMICIDE ...

I'd like to provide more details and some corrections to the earlier "Marijuana MURDER" post about the killing of Scott Bryant of Beaver Dam, WI in April. There can be no question that this was an appalling abuse of power by local law enforcement. However, we should ensure that we don't let a few minor inaccuracies detract from the credibility of people who use this as an example of the Drug War nightmare.

The original post asserts that the police found three grams of hemp and no guns. It was actually 24 grams (less than an ounce) and the police did find a rifle and a pellet gun when they searched Bryant's trailer. The police admit that Bryant was unarmed and offered no resistance, and that the hunting weapons found later in the trailer played no role whatsoever.

It is not true that Bryant's seven-year-old son Colten "watched his father die". What happened was arguably even more nightmarish and bizarre. No member of Bryant's family was with him when he died because the police did not notify anyone. A neighbor called Bryant's parents, who had to _guess_ which hospital their son had been sent to. Colten Bryant, Scott's son, cowered in his bedroom for over an hour after the shooting until the deputies found him and brought him out. When he finally arrived at the hospital, the police still had not told him what happened. It was his grandfather who told him, "You have to be brave. They shot Daddy."

Detective Robert Neumann, the deputy who fired the shot, has been Dodge County's highest-profile narcotics officer for years. He is county coordinator for CEASE (Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Effort). In the past five years, he has attended at least 57 classes and conferences ranging from "Cannabis Detection" to "SWAT shoot". In spite of his credentials as an experienced drug warrior, Neumann maintains he does not even _remember_ pulling the trigger!

As if the story wasn't bad enough already, political power and pull also appears to have played a significant role in this tragedy. Detective Neumann, Bryant's killer, is the chairman of the Dodge County Republican Party, and has campaigned for Sheriff Stephen Fitzgerald since the sheriff was first elected in 1988. His ability to make front-page news via drug busts and cash seizures - just prior to strategic elections - has made him a valuable asset in Sheriff Fitzgerald's election bids. Detective Neumann himself was recently elected to the Beaver Dam school board.

An internal investigation by the District Attorney ruled the shooting "not in any way justified". However, no criminal charges were filed, not even negligent use of a firearm. After a two-month hiatus (with pay) during the investigation, Detective Robert Neumann was returned to active duty. According to Sheriff Fitzgerald, "The detective has suffered enough. He has had the wrath of God on him since this happened."

Fact Sources:
"North Country Libertarian" Libertarian Party of Wisconsin, March/April Issue
"Isthmus" Madison Weekly Newspaper, Vol 20, No. 26, June 30-July 6 Issue

Let Freedom Ring!

 ...Tom Ender (OS/2Warp/GCP 2.11-73511.3611@compuserve.com)

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950607, Cali, Columbia.
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 20:44:55 -0500
From: carlolsen@dsmnet.com (Carl E. Olsen)
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: Ex-Justice lawyer indicted
Message-ID: <9506080144.AA27804@DSM6.DSMNET.COM>

The Des Moines Register
Tuesday, June 6, 1995 3A

Ex-Justice lawyer named in drug probe

Indictments charge 60 in smuggling conspiracy

The former prosecutor later went to work for the Colombian cocaine cartel.

Miami, Fla. (AP) -- The man who as the government's extradition expert once helped bring Colombian drug smugglers and other foreign criminals to justice in the United States was among three U.S. lawyers accused in a drug smuggling conspiracy Monday.

More than 60 people were charged in the case, including the former Justice Department official and a former federal prosecutor. Three other lawyers, including a second federal prosecutor, have pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

One of the lawyers named in the indictment was Michael Abbell, who once headed the international affairs office of the Justice Department's criminal division. Abbell's duties included heading efforts to bring the Cali cartel smugglers to justice in the United States.

The charges against the former Justice Department lawyers stemmed from activities after they left the department, authorities said.

Officials said the lawyers warned potential witnesses to keep silent, provided drug money to relatives of cartel associates being prosecuted and fabricated evidence for use in Colombia to obstruct prosecution.

U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey called the indictment "the single most significant prosecution in history against the Cali cartel."

After leaving government service, Abbell represented reputed cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela.

Another of the lawyers, William Moran, was accused of tipping the cartel to the identity of an informant who was later killed. Moran lawyer Marty Weinberg said his client is innocent.

"These lawyers defended clients charged with drug crimes aggressively," said Roy Black, Abbell's attorney. "They did all the things lawyers are supposed to do and now they're charged."

The investigation, dubbed Operation Cornerstone, provided one of the most detailed pictures yet of the sophisticated Cali cartel and especially how it used U.S. defense lawyers to deliver money, falsify evidence and even deliver warnings to those in jail about the hazards of cooperation, federal agents said.

The cartel, which is run like a Fortune 500 company, has smuggled 200,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States since 1983 and is responsible for bringing in 80 percent of the cocaine circulating in this country, federal officials said.

The indictment also charged cartel leaders Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, Jose Santacruz-Londono and Helmer Herrera-Buitrago and dozens of distributors and managers in Latin America and the southeastern United States. Earlier indictments named many of the leading figures in the Cali cartel.

About a third of the people named in the indictment are in the United States. Federal officials said 22 had been arrested by Monday.

"Lawyers have a license to practice law," said James Milford, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami field office.

"But they don't have a license to be above the law."

The indictments also charged lawyers Moran and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald L. Ferguson of Boca Raton with involvement in the cartel's smuggling enterprise.

********************************************************************
* Carl Olsen [REDACTED]
* [REDACTED]
* [REDACTED], Iowa [REDACTED] * [REDACTED] *
* [REDACTED] voice & fax * [REDACTED] *
 ********************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 08 Jun 1995 12:23:51 -0400 (Thu)
From: gdk@mhis.bix.com (Gary Kendall)
Subject: Cocaine net lands US prosecutors
To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU

The Electronic Telegraph Thursday 8 June 1995

[World News]

Cocaine net lands US prosecutors

BY CHARLES LAURENCE IN NEW YORK

THREE former US government prosecutors have been charged along with four alleged Colombian cocaine barons and 55 other alleged smugglers, money launderers and corrupt lawyers.

The indictment is against the Cali cartel, responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of cocaine traffic to America. Twenty-two of those charged, including the former prosecutors, have been arrested.

Michael Abbell, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Internal Affairs, and Donald Ferguson, a former prosecutor in Miami, charged with racketeering and conspiracy, face life imprisonment without parole if convicted.

The alleged offences were committed after the former prosecutors had gone into private practice. Joel Rosenthal, former federal prosecutor in New York and Miami, has pleaded guilty to money laundering.

The four alleged Cali cartel leaders are Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela, his brother Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, Jose Santacruz-Londono and Helmer Herrera-Buitrago.

The four and many others on the charge sheets are in Cali or other locations outside the United States, and are unlikely to be brought to trial in an American court.

Two more American lawyers netted by Operation Cornerstone are William Moran, charged with identifying an informant who was later murdered by the cartel, and former assistant US attorney Donald Ferguson of Boca Raton, Florida, charged with involvement in smuggling cocaine.

------------------------------

@@@

950608, Arizona.
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 95 12:27:44 PDT
From: karnow@cup.portal.com
Subject: "Computer error" not a basis for suppressing evidence

Original-Subject: Unlawful arrest based on computer error does not lead to exclusion of evidence

The United States Supreme Court in Arizona v. Evans (March 1, 1995) discussed an illegal arrest precipitated by a "computer error." A man was arrested based on what police officers thought was an outstanding warrant for his arrest; in fact the warrant had been quashed; court clerical personnel had failed to clear the warrant from their computer system. The police thus had no legal basis for the arrest.

Following the arrest, the police found a bag of marijuana. The issue was whether the marijuana evidence should be suppressed (which would have the effect of dismissing the case). The state court threw out the evidence under the old suppression rule -- holding that the "fruit" (drugs) of the poisonous tree (the illegal arrest) should not come into evidence. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, and held that the purpose of the exclusionary rule -- to encourage proper police procedures -- would not be furthered by tossing the evidence.

The Supreme Court found that excluding the evidence would not have a significant effect on the actions of court personal, and thus that errors by court clerks were not a basis for excluding evidence. The Court did not address whether court personnel's outright misconduct, and such personnel's deliberate efforts to violate peoples' constitutional rights, would lead to the exclusion of evidence, but the reasoning in this case strongly suggests that such misconduct would *not* lead to exclusion.

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950623, Latin America.
Date: Mon Jun 26, 1995 8:41 pm CST
From: IATP
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: iatp@igc.apc.org

TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: NAFTA & Inter-Am Trade Monitor 6/23

NAFTA & Inter-American Trade Monitor Produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
June 23, 1995
Volume 2, Number 19
INTER-AMERICAN DRUG TRADE

Cocaine and other drugs represent a large segment of agricultural production in the Americas and a significant aspect of international commerce. In 1993, in Colombia alone, coca planting was estimated at 42,000 hectares, with an additional 20,000 hectares in poppies and 6-8,000 hectares in marijuana. The Colombian government claims that coca and other drug production has doubled since 1993, due to defense of producers by guerrillas, who charge a tax for protecting growers, laboratories, and air fields.

As officially reported Colombian export income shot up by 29.8 percent (from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion) in the first two months of 1995, compared to the same period in 1994, many experts say that the sharp increase is due in part to fraudulent invoicing to hide drug profits. Colombian drug profits are estimated at $800 million to $3 billion annually.

While drug cartels make large amounts of money, drug couriers receive relatively low pay and are at relatively high risk. Producers, too, receive far less money than those controlling marketing and distribution, and are frequently the targets of international action to destroy their fields. In the face of U.S. demands that the Bolivian government eradicate their fields, Bolivian coca producers joined with teachers and labor unions in national protests over neoliberal government policies and low wages. In April, the government responded to the strikes and protests by declaring a state of siege.

Tarahumara Indians in remote villages of northern Mexico have been brought into marijuana and opium poppy production by Mexican cartels. Initially, the relatively high returns on drug cultivation attracted some farmers. Drug cartels later used violence and threats of violence to consolidate and maintain their hold on production. Mexican police and government officials frequently collaborate with the cartels, removing any avenue of appeal for campesinos who would prefer not to cooperate. Drug trafficking allegedly involves such high officials as the sons of billionaire Carlos Hank Gonzalez and the brother of ex-president Carlos Salinas.

Although the United States and Europe are still the primary markets for cocaine exports from Latin America, Argentina and Chile have also increased domestic consumption in recent years. Argentina is a transit country for cocaine from Peru and Colombia, some of which is processed into hydrochloride by Bolivian-Argentine joint ventures. Most cocaine consumed in or passing through Chile comes from Bolivia. The cocaine trade has fueled a real estate boom in some Chilean cities, and benefits from banking secrecy in Chile.

Nor is government corruption by drug money limited to Mexico and Latin American countries. In early June, a former senior official in the U.S. Justice Department's "war on drugs," two other former Justice Department officials, and two former federal prosecutors in Florida were indicted in Miami on charges of participating in a cocaine smuggling conspiracy. According to the New York Times, "So many Miami lawyers are under indictment at any one time that courts have been obliged to hold special hearings to inform their clients that their lawyers may have conflicts in representing them because the lawyers may also be bargaining with the prosecution for themselves."

"Mexico: Narcos at the Heart of the State;"
"Argentina: "White Coffee" Boom;"
"Chile: Cocaine Enters Politics;"
THE GEOPOLITICAL DRUG DISPATCH, May, 1995;
Anthony DePalma, "Mexico's Indians Face New Conquistador: Drugs," NEW YORK TIMES, 6/2/95;
Neil A. Lewis, "U.S. Charging Ex-Prosecutors in a Drug Case," NEW YORK TIMES, 6/6/95;
Monica Iturralde Andrade, "Colombian Traffickers Use Ecuadorians to Smuggle Narcotics," INTERPRESS SERVICE, May, 1995;
"Coca Growers Ready for Dialogue," COCA PRESS, April 26-May 2, 1995;
Yadira Ferrer, "Narcoguerrillas Said Raking in Money," INTERPRESS SERVICE, May 8, 1995;
"Bolivia: Strikes End, But State of Siege Continues," NOTISUR, May 12, 1995;
Yadira Ferrer, "Drugs and Exports," INTERPRESS SERVICE, June 5, 1995.

-----------------------------

@@@

950623, Philadelphia, PA, Inquirer. Fifteen more drug cases
libernet
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 13:01:17 -0400
From: Mark Jones
To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU

 *** Police admit to planting drugs on the innocent ***

Ever want to explain to someone that drug laws are just too easy for law enforcement folks to abuse? Well, here is some great evidence of just how out of hand it can get.

 Within:
"The arresting officers... all have admitted they lied about drug arrests and searches... and have pleaded guilty to federal charges."

15 MORE DRUG CASES OVERTURNED

The costs could be huge for Philadelphia. Suits are likely over the 39th I District police corruption. -

By Mark Faziollah INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

It could force the review of a thousand drug cases.

Put hundreds of drug defendants back on the streets.

And cost the city millions.

Yesterday, as a specially assigned judge dismissed charges against 13 more defendants, Philadelphia got its loudest warning yet of the potential enormity of the 39th District police-corruption scandal's impact.

First Deputy District Attorney,Arnold H. Gordon, a veteran prosecutor in the odd role of requesting a mass acquittal - asked Common Pleas Judge Legrome D. Davis to reverse the defendants' 15 cases "in the interest of justice."

The arresting officers in the cases - five former 39th District policemen - all have admitted they lied about drug arrests and searches in the North Philadelphia district between 1988 and 1991, and have pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Yesterday's dismissals bring to 27 the total number of drug defendants whose cases were dismissed because of the federal investigation. And Public Defender Bradley Bridge, who represented most of the defendants at yesterday's hearing, said it's just the beginning.

"Many innocent defendants have spent years in prison," Bridge said. "Sadly, this is not yet even the tip of the iceberg. Many, many more cases will follow."

Davis appeared to accept Bridge's prediction. He said he would handle -all future requests for dismissals arising from the 39th District investigation, thus speeding the process. The five former officers were indicted Feb. 28. They have since pleaded guilty to obstructing defendants' civil rights, and have agreed to help federal prosecutors expand the investigation.

Bridge said after the hearing that his preliminary review of past drug cases showed the five officers handled 200 cases in 1988 alone, and that his office later this week would begin reviewing all arrests made by the five officers between 1987 and 1994.

Eventually, he predicted, a thousand cases would have to be reexamined and hundreds of convictions could be overturned.

Thus far, all 12 of the drug cases the public defender has submitted for review by the District Attorney's Office have been dismissed.

And each case is a potential lawsuit.

Deputy City Solicitor James B. Jordan said he was "expecting a whole bunch" of suits related to the 39th District scandal.

"This could have very significant financial implications," Jordan said after yesterday's hearing.

Several of the defendants already are talking of suing.

There is Betty Patterson, 53, who completed her three-year prison term last year and was on parole until her charges were dismissed yesterday.

John Baird, a former 39th District officer who pleaded guilty to corruption charges, has said police framed Patterson and planted drugs in her North Philadelphia home - in an effort, Baird contended, to get evidence in a separate case against her three sons.

Patterson wore a big smile after the hearing but declined to comment. Her attorney, Jennifer St. Hill, has notified the city that a suit is imminent.

John Wayne Coleman, who spent the last four years in prison, had all his drug charges dismissed yesterday.

"When they came into my house, they never acknowledged they were police," Coleman told reporters at the hearing. "Before this conviction, I wasn't in trouble for 10 years."

Coleman's attorney, Adrian J. Moody, said his client, too, would sue the city.

In addition to dismissing the convictions of Patterson and Coleman and the 13 other cases, Judge Davis also began expunging the defendants' records of all information about the arrests.

Officially, Betty Patterson, who was accompanied at yesterday's hearing by six of her relatives, now has no criminal record.

"Fortunately, the truth finally came out," said Daniel-Paul Alva, Patterson's original trial lawyer, who attended yesterday's hearing. "The police woke up that day and said they were going to make her a criminal."

Davis also dismissed charges against defendants identified as Denise Patterson (no relation to Betty), Andre Bonaparte (who had three cases dismissed), Daniel Briggs, Clinton Cotton, Clifford Foster, Lonyo Holmes, Larry Maddox, Anthony Thomason, Steven Trotty, John Walker and Wanda Wilson.

Typically, the defendants had been convicted of possessing crack cocaine with intent to deliver.

Briggs and Thomason had never been convicted. They ' had been sought by authorities since they failed to appear in court shortly after their 1988 arrests. Davis ordered their arrest warrants withdrawn.

"They can come home again," attorney Bridge said.

He said the only time Briggs and Thomason had been arrested was when they were picked up by the former 39th District officers.

Later this week, Bridge said, he intends to ask the District Attorney's Office to dismiss 10 to 20 additional cases - selected from the 200 he has identified from 1988 files. He said he would seek immediate attention for cases involving defendants still imprisoned.

Denise Patterson, one of those cleared yesterday, was an 18-year-old nursing student when she was arrested in November 1988. Though she did not attend the hearing, she has steadfastly maintained she was innocent of drug

charges,

 "We'll sue," said her attorney, Vincent J. Ziccardi. "Now the fun begins."

-- end --

Date: Thu, 17 Aug 1995 14:07:37 -0500 (EST)
From: HATHAWAY@stsci.edu
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: Tip of Iceberg
Message-ID: <01HU6KR3FU9EHV425Z@AVION.STSCI.EDU>

Aug 17, 1995
The Wash. Post Page A-3

_Police Scandal Creates Storm In Philadelphia_

.. Geroge Porchea was released from jail last month after serving more than two years on drug charges...

.. the officers who arrested him in 1988 pleaded guilty earlier this year to a three-year rampage of making false arrests, planting drugs, filing bogus police reports and robbing victims in Philadelphia's 39th Police District. Porchea's case is part of the first wave of what probably will be hundreds of overturned convictions in cases involving the five officers implicated in the scandal. Forty cases have been overturned so far, and some people, like Porcheas, have been released from prison. ...

 To date, 16 lawsuits or notices of lawsuits have been logged in ...

Betty Patterson, for instance, is seeking $7 million to compensate for the three years she spent in prison. The officers who arrested her admitted planting the drugs found in her home, said her attorney, Jennifer St. Hill. Patterson, 53, is a churchgoing grandmother with no prior criminal record. St. Hill called her client's prison time "a hellish experience."

.. estimates at least 1,400 cases involving the officers will be reviewed...

The 39th Police District covers a poor, mostly black swatch of North Philadelphia... "... the officers preyed on, their lack of resources and credibility."

At the time of his arrest, George Porchea was ... sleeping at his girlfriend's house when several officers broke down the door the night of Jan. 5, 1988, ransacked the house and herded him and his girlfriend's brother into a police van, according to his attorney...

 ... the two were locked in the van for six hours while police got a search warrant and planted crack cocaine in the house. At the police station, she said, officers beat Porchea into a confession. When the case went to court, Boyce said Porchea was advised by his attorney at the time to plead guilty so he could get a lessor sentence.

"Juries tend to believe police, and think people who push drugs are dirty slime," Boyce said. "What could he do when these four officers were alleging they took crack cocaine from him?"..

.. getting financial compensation won't be easy. Although the five officers have admitted guilt, they are "judgement-proof" because they have no money.

.. the "word on the street" is that up to another dozen or so police officers may be indicted soon.

"if this was simply an unprecedented, unusual situation it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world," Rudovsky said. "But this is the tip of the iceberg."

---------------------------------------

Now, can we get away from the 'my head is more important than your bed' stuff and concentrate on the real threat to Liberty? Lives are being ruined. The Prohib Warriors are destroying this country. I have to write my letters to the newspapers from my home machine (not connected to any network), but I hope to compose a blistering response to this latest - and unfortunately, not isolated - outrage.

WHH

From: nattyreb@ix.netcom.com (Marpessa Kupendua)
To:          can-ar@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
X-Note:                Only the first 25K of this message is displayed. You can retrieve the entire text by selecting "Download."
Date: 95-08-31 10:28:13 EDT

Excerpts from 8/31/95 Philadelphia Inquirer

SIX MORE DISTRICTS INVOLVED
by Mark Fazlollah and Dianna Marder

In a major expansion of the search for corrupt police officers, federal investigators have subpoenaed the logs of as many as 100,000 arrests over 10 years in six Philadelphia police districts. Federal grand jury subpoenas were delivered Monday for all arrest log books for the last decade from the 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th and 26th Districts and the Highway Patrol.

Investigators are looking into a pattern of police abuse against primarily poor black residents. Police have been charged with framing people, lying to obtain search warrants, stealing money, false arrest, and beating and threatening citizens. Law enforcement officials have said some cops were also selling seized drugs back to street dealers.

So far, 42 criminal convictions have been overturned and more than 1,000 more are under review because they were tainted by testimony from corrupt officers. The 25th District headquarters was the site of a large drug find in January, 1994. An officer cleaning an air duct in the division's locker room discovered a package containing 81 small bags of heroin. Police checked further, finding four vials of crack cocaine, nearly a gram of cocaine and 12 grams of marijuana. One officer involved in the probe said they were part of an illegal stash, apparently used by officers who planted them on suspects. They later found 27 vials of crack cocaine in the locker of 25th District officer Bruce DeNoble, who was fired but later reinstated after arguing that through an oversight he failed to properly dispose of the drugs.

-------------------

Excerpts from 8/31 Philadelphia Daily News

DIRTY COP PLEADS GUILTY
by Jim Smith

For about two months in 1990, John Baird and Louis Maier were the Starsky and Hutch of the 39th Police District. They were aggressive, in-your-face cops, part of the North Philadelphia district's nearly all white plainclothes narcotics squad. Some residents of the predominantly black area called the two partners Blondie and Red because of the colors of their hair.

They made up reasons to search and arrest known and suspected drug dealers, stole what money they could, and arrested people on trumped-up charges, at times planting evidence when none existed to make their cases more attractive for prosecution. Once, on a whim, they chased a drug addict on Broad Street in their unmarked police car and rammed the man's car several times to force it to the side. Then they smashed the driver's side window, yanked out the addict and shoved him to the ground. Finding only two vials of cocaine, they planted 10 more as evidence in hopes the district attorney's office might prosecute the man.

Maier, 38, the son of a former cop who is now deceased and the nephew of a city judge, yesterday became the sixth officer from the 39th District to cop a plea in federal court and to agree to tell all he knows about police corruption, to inform on others, just as Baird had copped a plea earlier and ratted out Maier. The judge set sentencing for Dec. 15 and allowed Maier to remain free on $10,000 unsecured bail.

------------------------

Date: Sat Sep 09, 1995 6:20 pm CST
From: snet l
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: snet-l@world.std.com
TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Philadelphia Police Corruption Exposed

-------------------------

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 14, 1995 issue of Workers World newspaper

-------------------------

PHILADELPHIA POLICE: CORRUPT, RACIST CRIMINALS EXPOSED

By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia

An official investigation of police activity here has revealed persistent racism, planting evidence against suspects, and widespread corruption and criminality.

The investigation has uncovered a pattern of police abuse against impoverished Black and Latino residents -- no surprise to these communities. Time after time, people whose only crime was to be poor and oppressed -- ranging in ages from youths to grandparents --have been framed and sent to jail.

In thousands of cases, the only solid evidence against people convicted of crimes was planted or otherwise created by the police. Cops also often used made-up evidence to extort money from alleged drug dealers -- or they sold the drugs themselves.

Racism and corruption are nothing new in Philadelphia's police force. Temple University historian Russell F. Weigley describes the city's newly consolidated police force in 1854 as follows: "The police were recruited from the kind of toughs who came out of the street gangs and were accustomed to beating up Irishmen and Blacks. The early police specialized in legalized violence." (Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 30)

You don't need to go back over 100 years, however, to find evidence of racism, abuse and corruption in the Philadelphia police department.

In the 1970s Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo targeted the Black Panther Party. Philadelphia cops also

assaulted and murdered members of the MOVE organization in West Philadelphia. The May 1985 police bombing of the MOVE house left 13 people dead and 61 homes destroyed.

This July 8, a group of cops barged into a wedding at Zion Baptist, a Black church in North Philadelphia, and arrested the groom.

The investigation that started with the 39th district has been expanded to the department's showpiece unit -- the Highway Patrol, which escorts presidents and other visiting dignitaries and provides back-up in drug arrests.

In this unit described as the "cream of the police department," as many as nine officers face charges. They are accused of not only stealing drugs and money and framing suspects, but also of selling seized drugs back to street dealers.

COPS FRAMED SUSPECTS

In the 39th district, five white former cops have already been convicted of framing people, lying to obtain search warrants, stealing money, falsifying arrests, and beating and threatening people.

Their victims, all Black, may number over 1,150. To date convictions have been overturned in nearly four dozen cases in which these cops made the arrests.

In late August, a sixth 39th-district officer, Louis Maier III, also pleaded guilty.

The widening corruption probe also now includes five murder cases. The former cops have admitted to paying witnesses to testify in murder prosecutions, and to planting drugs to justify illegal searches in order to obtain evidence for murder convictions.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Aug. 31 that federal investigators have subpoenaed the logs of as many as 100,000 arrests over 10 years in six police districts -- the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and the Highway Patrol.

Meanwhile, another case revealed a lot about the deep-set racism in the police department.

A white police captain, Thomas Thompson, was recently transferred and faces suspension. Thompson was head of the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Unit, which handles community complaints of police racism.

This police official -- who was supposed to be in charge of "sensitivity" to and relations with the oppressed communities -- was overheard making racist slurs against a Black police officer while both were on assignment at the Aug. 12 rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal at City Hall.

THE WHOLE BUSHEL'S ROTTEN

As scandal and corruption rock the police force, the city administration has attempted to downplay the crisis as merely a case of "a few bad apples." Mayor Edward Rendell says he wants to "just put this behind us."

The population doesn't buy this argument. African American talk show host Mary Mason told the Daily News (Sept. 1) that callers were "unanimous in their belief that this is not an aberration. They were more than willing to share their own bad experience with the police."

While the scope of the investigation is limited, it has helped expose the role of police under capitalism. Their job is not to protect working-class and oppressed neighborhoods. It is to occupy these communities.

Philadelphia City Council member Michael Nutter has called for an independent panel to probe the police. But many people in the community say internal investigations and special commissions, set up by city officials, only whitewash police crimes.

The people of North Philadelphia need an independent community-control board -- one with powers to investigate, expose and prosecute the racist, corrupt cops.

                                                 - END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com)

------------------------------

Date: Mon Mar 25, 1996 12:36 am CST
From: Moderator of conference justice.polabuse
                 EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
                 MBX: bwitanek@igc.apc.org

TO: * David Beiter / MCI ID: 635-1762
Subject: Philly: Impact of Frame Ups

From: Bob Witanek

Posted dadoner@chesco.com Sun Mar 24 17:00:49 1996

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/philly-police.html

March 24, 1996

Philadelphia Feels Effects of Inquiry

[P] HILADELPHIA -- After another 60 criminal convictions were overturned by a Common Pleas Court judge last week as a result of a continuing investigation into police corruption, the various agencies involved say the impact has only begun to be felt.

So far, 116 convictions have been overturned in cases involving six police officers who pleaded guilty last fall to corruption charges, including illegal searches, lying under oath and planting false evidence. In all, 1,800 convictions are being reviewed.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham said current cases that should result in convictions were being dismissed because juries and defense lawyers were increasingly questioning the integrity of police officers.

And the police union is seeking a wider investigation to include other criminal justice departments.

The charges against the six officers, all from the 39th District in North Philadelphia, were the result of an investigation by the district attorney and U.S. attorney in Philadelphia. Among the other cases that have surfaced is one involving an officer convicted of stealing $242 from a store on his patrol in the city's middle class Roxborough section, Ms. Abraham said.

Ms. Abraham said the investigation had "wideranging effects for both judges and juries." She refused to discuss the ongoing inquiry.

"There are significant areas of concern that the criminal justice system isn't working anyway and this is another demoralizing influence," she said. "It plants a seed of doubt since any arrest involved an officer's credibility. It can be a game lawyers play: In how many cases can I ride this wave and get my client's case dismissed?"

Despite the high-profile investigation, the City Council turned down Ms. Abraham's request for $600,000 to finance a police corruption unit. And Philadelphia officials have downplayed the city's potential liability in class actions suits being brought by people whose cases are overturned. The cases are reviewed by the public defender's office and the district attorney; a judge makes the final decision.

Police morale has been sapped by the investigation, said Richard Costello, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.

While he blamed media attention for creating the perception of widespread corruption, Costello said the department itself began the investigation now continued by the other agencies.

"We have a force of 6,200 officers. We had six plead guilty and there are rumors of four more. I'll match that record against any profession on Earth, but it's still 10 too many," he said.

Costello questioned why the district attorney's office disbanded its white-collar crime unit yet has sought a police corruption unit. He has called the current investigation "politically choreographed" and has asked U.S. Attorney Michael Stiles to extend it to include lawyers practicing in Philadelphia courts.

Costello has asked for oversight by federal officials from outside Philadelphia but has gotten no reply from Stiles, whom he calls "a protege" of Mayor Ed Rendell.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office would not comment on the investigation.

Police corruption is changing, making it more difficult to detect, said Gary Sykes, director of the Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute in Dallas. In earlier generations, officers and superiors were paid off to ignore criminal activity, but today's officers are tempted individually or in small groups beyond direct supervision.

Two years ago, Pennsylvania police union officials refused to let officers participate in a survey to measure their exposure to, and opinions of, official misconduct, Sykes said.

The National Institute of Justice, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, surveyed 700 Ohio officers and found 10 percent had seen fellow officers perform an illegal search for drugs. In Illinois, the survey excluded Chicago and found one-quarter of 1,200 officers questioned had seen such an improper search.

"The concern is that officers are willing to overlook things and compromise on the small things, that makes it much easier to compromise on the big things," Sykes said. "That's a kind of abuse of authority by people who see themselves as above the law."

So, instead of defending homicide cases involving the death penalty, Assistant Public Defender Bradley Bridge is reviewing the hundreds of cases where verdicts may be reviewed.

"We're trying to track down every case in which these officers were involved and track down all the people involved," he said. "I had no idea it was going to expand this far."

Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company