OFFICERS SUBPOENAED IN DRUG CASE

House Wants Police And Dea Agents To Testify On Rap-A-Lot Investigation

The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform subpoenaed three Houston
police officers and five Drug Enforcement Administration agents to testify
in Washington, D.C., on a local drug investigation, officials confirmed
Tuesday.

The eight subpoenas request the law enforcement officers to appear before
the committee Dec. 6 to discuss an investigation of Rap-A-Lot recording
company founder and President James A. Prince and his associates, said
House Committee spokesman Sean Spicer.

"This should help us get to the bottom of the problem," Spicer said. "When
you have a major drug investigation suddenly close down and someone claims
political pressure, it's worth looking into."

A multiagency task force of investigators secured more than 20 convictions
on associates of Prince on charges ranging from drug trafficking to police
corruption before the joint Houston Police-DEA probe was allegedly shut
down in September 1999.

Prince, 36, was never charged and convicted in the investigation. But he
complained to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who in turn informed
Attorney General Janet Reno, that he and his associates have been targeted
because of profiling, police racism and jealousy over his rise to riches
from his Fifth Ward neighborhood.

The subpoenas request HPD officers Bill Stephens, Larry Allen and Ralph
Chaison, all of the narcotics division, to appear before the House
Committee, Spicer said.

The police officers spoke last month to House Committee representatives who
traveled to Houston to discuss whether the the HPD was curtailed from the
investigation by DEA, police spokesman John Leggio confirmed.

The DEA agents subpoenaed include the DEA administrator, Donnie Marshall of
Washington, D.C., Houston's special agent-in-charge Ernest Howard and agent
Jack Schumacher, who headed the investigation before being transferred to
another position.

Howard, Schumacher's immediate supervisor, previously denied ever stopping
the investigation because of political pressure. However, recently released
e-mail by Howard discussed stopping the investigation and referred to Vice
President Al Gore, who made a campaign stop last March in Houston that
included a church where Prince is a financially contributing member.

Howard previously denied the case had been sidetracked.

But Schumacher's attorney, Michael Hinton, thinks otherwise.

"There's no question that this investigation was shut down," Hinton said.
"The question is why and how it was shut down.

"The officers and agents who were in the field doing the work are anxious
to testify. I can only hope the Justice Department does not interfere and
instead cooperates," he said.