CHARGES DROPPED AS JONES CASE HAS RIPPLE EFFECT

A Prince George's County prosecutor abruptly dropped charges against a
suspected drug dealer yesterday after his attorney raised a challenge to
the credibility of a key police witness: the undercover officer who shot
and killed an unarmed man in Fairfax County.

The case marked at least the fourth time in six weeks that charges have
been dropped or a defendant has won a quick acquittal in a case involving a
police officer under investigation or facing criminal charges.

The scenario is almost certain to be repeated because of the large number
of Prince George's police officers in one of those situations. This drug
case, alone, involves six more defendants.

Prince George's State's Attorney Jack B. Johnson has said that, in general,
he intends to go forward with prosecutions involving possibly tainted
officers and let juries determine whether they are credible.

Yesterday, however, Assistant State's Attorney Roland Lee announced a
decision to drop charges shortly after attorney Richard V. Finci told a
judge he would file a motion to review investigative reports on Cpl.
Carlton B. Jones, the undercover Prince George's narcotics officer who
fatally shot a Hyattsville man Sept. 1 after trailing him into Fairfax County.

Jones, 32, shot Prince C. Jones Jr., who was no relation, after the unarmed
man began ramming the officer's sport-utility vehicle with a black Jeep
Cherokee, officials say.

Late last month, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr.
announced that he would not charge the officer with a crime, saying Carlton
Jones feared for his life and acted in self-defense.

The FBI is investigating Jones for possible civil rights violations, and
the Prince George's police internal affairs unit is probing as well. Though
suspended with pay, Jones retains police powers and continues to testify in
drug cases.

He was prepared to testify yesterday against William Phillips, a Silver
Spring man charged with two counts of distribution of cocaine, a charge
that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

According to charging papers: Jones gave a woman $60 for crack cocaine in a
Hyattsville apartment in an undercover operation May 23. The woman paged
someone, and minutes later, Phillips arrived and walked with her into a
back bedroom. The woman then emerged with two bags of crack.

Just before Phillips's trial was to begin yesterday, Finci told Circuit
Court Judge E. Allen Shepherd that he intended to file a motion asking not
just for a police internal affairs report on Jones but also for any police
reports on the Prince Jones shooting. Finci said he intended to make a
motion that the judge allow the jury to hear that Carlton Jones is suspended.

A week earlier, Circuit Court Judge Richard H. Sothoron Jr. ruled that the
trial judge should look at an internal affairs report stemming from an
April 1997 arrest and determine whether Finci could introduce it as evidence.

In a federal civil lawsuit involving that arrest, John Robert Johnson
alleges that Jones battered and falsely imprisoned him when Jones arrested
him in a shooting and on gun charges. All charges were later dropped. The
suit alleges that a police administrative hearing board found Jones guilty
of unspecified charges in the incident.

Lee told the judge that he had tried to get a copy of the report from
police but that his calls were not returned.

After a brief recess, Lee told Shepherd that the state was dropping the
charges against Phillips.

"My client was quite pleased," Finci said.