DRUG CASE A BLACK EYE FOR PROSECUTORS

Like a CAT scan series depicting the progress of a degenerative disease, the
long, strange saga of Joseph E. Puertas continues to expose lesions in the
criminal justice system.

Puertas is the 76-year-old Clarkston man Oakland County prosecutors have
been pursuing since 1997, when police in search of illegal narcotics seized
more than $1 million in cash, but no drugs, from several Puertas family
members' homes and businesses.

Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca eventually laid claim to more than
$4 million in cash, jewelry and other assets owned by Puertas' spouse and
children, and in 1999 Joe Puertas was convicted of six counts of delivery of
cocaine and one count of operating a criminal enterprise.

Most of what has happened since is an embarrassment to law enforcement in
general and Gorcyca's office in particular.

Two months after Puertas' conviction, Michigan State Police released results
of an investigation in which officers, including the then-commander of the
state Narcotics Enforcement Team, expressed grave doubts about the case
against Puertas and the credibility of a paid informant who testified for
the prosecution.

Elusive Assets

Soon afterward, the judge who had presided over Puertas' trial vacated his
convictions, concluding that jurors might have acquitted Puertas if they'd
had an opportunity to review the State Police report.

Meanwhile, the civil forfeiture action in which prosecutors had staked their
claim to the seized Puertas family assets was crumbling. Puertas' wife and
children admitted some of the cash recovered was unreported income from the
family's bar and bowling alley operations. But they scoffed at allegations
the money came from drug sales, and rebuffed the state's efforts to salvage
a face-saving division of the seized property.

Last month, as a civil trial that would have subjected the prosecution's
case to fresh scrutiny approached, Gorcyca folded, returning the cash and
jewelry his office had stacked before TV cameras in a 1997 raid. The IRS got
$1.6 million toward the Puertas family's tax liabilities; family members got
everything else.

Old Questions Get New Scrutiny

Joe Puertas' criminal troubles are far from over. Last October, the Michigan
Court of Appeals reversed the order that granted Puertas a new trial. While
the State Police report might have damaged the state's case against Puertas,
the appeals court said, prosecutors were under no legal obligation to
provide it to his lawyers.

But last week U.S. District Judge Paul Gadola, a Reagan appointee not noted
for his sympathy toward criminal defendants, gave Puertas fresh hope for a
new trial, ruling that Puertas lawyers had presented a "substantial claim"
for federal relief.

In a separate blow to prosecutors, Gadola ruled that Puertas, who has heart
disease and bladder cancer, should remain free on bond pending the
resolution of his federal appeal.

Prosecutors had argued that the state Department of Corrections could
adequately treat Puertas while he was in prison; Gadola said findings of
fact in a separate legal action over prison health care suggested otherwise.

No one is saying how much money Oakland County has spent in its pursuit of
Puertas. So far, all taxpayers have to show for it is a lot of questions
about police conduct, prosecutorial integrity and prison health care.