TIMELINE LEADS TO DRUG CASE GOING ON

FBI Notes Sent Out After Indictments

OXFORD, Miss. - Confidential FBI interview notes from a plea-bargaining
session with an accused Tunica drug dealer were sent "inadvertently" to a
lawyer for the man's co-defendant, an assistant U.S. attorney testified
Tuesday.

But the documents could not have been used to tailor witness testimony
before a federal grand jury that indicted Mack Arthur Bowens and Willie
Hampton on May 25, Asst. U.S. Atty. William C. 'Chad' Lamar said. That's
because the notes were still in government custody until at least June 1,
when they were sent to Bowens's lawyer to aid in his defense.

Using that chronology, U.S. Dist. Judge W. Allen Pepper Jr. denied Bowens's
and Hampton's motions to dismiss their cases after hearing testimony over
two days.

Bowens had alleged that the typed FBI notes taken during an off-the-record
plea-bargaining session on April 19 were circulated in the Lafayette County
Detention Center for use by "want-to-be witnesses" against him.

Bowens's first drug indictment resulted in his acquittal last year after an
FBI agent acknowledged forging signatures on witness statements. Agent Alan
Tatum has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

A convicted rapist-kidnapper called by Bowens's lawyer Tuesday said it was
commonplace for inmates at the jail to read about cases, then offer to be
government "snitches" in exchange for reduced prison time, even though they
had no real knowledge of the cases. In jail parlance the practice is called
"getting on their cases," inmate James William Smith said. Smith also
testified he'd seen the FBI document summarizing Bowens's confidential
admissions and that it was hotly discussed in his jail pod.

During two days of testimony, no explanation for how the documents got into
the jail was offered, and the government's formal, written answer to
Bowens's motion to dismiss was filed Tuesday under seal.

Five inmates who were in the Lafayette County lockup and testified before
the grand jury against Bowens and Hampton all testified they had never seen
the FBI agent's notes and had not been coached before their May appearance
before the panel.

When Lamar was called to the witness stand, he testified that he sent
discovery material to Bowens's lawyer, Whitman D. Mounger of Greenwood, on
June 1. On June 29, Lamar said he inadvertently sent the same documents
involving Bowens to Gail P. Thompson of Oxford, Hampton's lawyer at the time.

Thompson was later disqualified from representing Hampton because of a
conflict of interest representing Melvin Shipp, an inmate who testified
against Hampton at the grand jury, who is seeking a reduced sentence for
his cooperation.

Thompson did not return The Commercial Appeal's phone call left with an
answering service Tuesday.