DRUG INVESTIGATION HEARINGS BEGIN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House panel heard conflicting testimony Wednesday
about whether political pressure prompted Attorney General Janet Reno to
halt a drug investigation of a rap music promoter.

The Government Reform Committee opened a two-day hearing to find out why
the investigation of Rap-A-Lot records founder James Prince was curtailed
last year, despite 20 convictions of other suspects in the investigation.
Critics of the move claim Reno bowed to pressure from Rep. Maxine Waters,
D-Calif.

The Drug Enforcement Administration agent who led the joint investigation
with the Houston Police Department testified that the DEA's top agent in
Houston, Ernest Howard, told him in September 1999 that the case was shut
down for political reasons. Three Houston officers who testified agreed
Howard made such a statement.

"Mr. Howard said headquarters and politics, politics and headquarters and
that as of 10:21 this morning we were shutting it down," said Agent Jack
Schumacher, who did not recall the day the investigation ended.

But Howard told the House panel that the probe continued until August 1999,
when he decided to suspend it because officers and agents were being
wrongly accused of crimes.

"They had been accused of beating people, of illegal activity. I was
concerned about these agents' careers," he said.

Some committee members were visibly unhappy with Howard's responses and
implied they did not believe him. Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., reminded
Howard he was under oath and that inaccurate testimony could lead to
prosecution.

Waters, D-Calif., wrote an Aug. 20, 1999, letter to Reno asking her to
investigate allegations by Prince that he had been subjected to racial
slurs, illegal searches of his car and harassment. She also said Prince
believed his life was in danger "at the hands of rogue officers from the
Drug Enforcement Agency" in Houston.

Prince is black, as are Waters, Howard and two of the police officers in
the investigation.

Waters did not testify at the hearing and her office did not return calls
seeking comment.

After Waters' letter, Houston police officers were taken off the
investigation, the three officers testified.

"I feel bad because we were making headway and that headway was stopped,"
said Houston Police Officer Larry Jean Allen.

Republican committee members also questioned whether Vice President Al Gore
had influenced the case because of a March 12 visit he made to a Houston
church with financial ties to Prince. Schumacher said he was transferred to
another job two days after the Gore visit.

"If there is one area we don't want to have undermined by partisan politics
it is our drug laws -- unfortunately that's what appears to have happened
in this case," said Burton, a frequent Clinton critic.

"There is absolutely no connection between the vice president and those
matters," said Jim Kennedy, a Gore spokesman.

Howard answered "no" each time he was asked whether the White House,
Waters, the Gore campaign or supervisors had told him to shut down the case.

DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall was scheduled to testify Thursday.