SEWELL ARREST COMPLICATES CITY'S FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS

Police Testimony Often Sole Evidence

This is a typical drug case in Baltimore: A police officer is camped out
watching a street corner. The officer sees a drug sale and comes out of
hiding to make an arrest. The suspect tosses plastic baggies of drugs onto
the street, or the officer finds drugs in the suspect's pockets.

In a courtroom, the case boils down to the word of the officer against the
word of the suspect.

It happens thousands of times a year. Instances in which a suspect dumps
the drugs as an officer approaches are so common that prosecutors and
judges have a nickname for them - "dropsy" cases.

That is why recent charges that Officer Brian L. Sewell planted evidence on
a suspect have reverberated so strongly through the criminal justice system.

The Police Department's strategy for the city's 30,000 drug arrests each
year focuses on officers' catching street-level dealers and users in the
act. An officer's testimony is often the only solid evidence that
prosecutors have to link the suspect and the drugs.

"Officer credibility is central" to these kinds of drug cases, said Circuit
Judge William D. Quarles. A police officer's "observation is the connection
between the drugs and the defendant," he said.

Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris said the "dropsy" cases are standard
in his street-level war against drug dealing. Baltimore has open-air drug
markets, and people often toss their drugs when a police cruiser approaches.

"I've seen it myself," Norris said. "People run and throw stuff on the
street. That's how it works out there. When they're arrested, they complain
they don't have any drugs. What do you expect them to say?"

Officers complain they can do little more to strengthen cases beyond
witnessing a "drop" or a drug sale because they are overworked and under
intense pressure to reduce crime. The best way to make a mark in the
department is to lock up as many suspected drug dealers as possible.

Norris agreed that his 3,200 officers are overworked - he is seeking funds
to hire 500 more - and he said he wants his officers to make drug arrests.
"I'm driving this department very hard in that direction," he said.

"We obviously want them to arrest people who need to be arrested," Norris
said. "They have to make arrests that are bona fide and legal."

Quarles said he thinks the charges against Sewell could have a ripple
effect in the courthouse. Many jurors, he said, are already suspicious of
police.

"The Sewell case is going to give ammunition to the portion of Baltimore
citizens which has a basic distrust of the Police Department," the judge said.

Prosecutors have dropped five pending cases in which Sewell is a primary
officer, and a review of court records shows that about eight more probably
will be dismissed.

That means people, including Raymond Banks, a convicted burglar, and Lionel
Pauling, a convicted drug dealer, will not be tried on charges filed by
Sewell that each had illegal drugs.

In Baltimore Circuit Court on Wednesday morning, Maurice Walker, who also
was arrested by Sewell, saw his case disappear.

As Walker stood with his lawyer, the prosecutor told Judge Paul A. Smith
that she was going to drop the case.

"Reason?" the judge asked.

"Witness availability," the prosecutor replied.

Outside of court, Walker, 19, did not deny having drugs in March, when
Sewell arrested him in the 800 block of Edmonson Ave., but he claims that
he did not have as many as the 31 gel caps of suspected cocaine that Sewell
alleged in his report.

In form and in substance, the case in which Sewell is accused of planting
evidence resembles the thousands of cases that flow into the courthouse
every year.

On Sept. 4, Sewell swore out drug-possession charges against Frederick L.
McCoy, alleging that he saw McCoy dump drugs on a park bench.

"As I turned my patrol vehicle onto the block, I observed a [man] ...
placing a clear plastic bag into a crack of a park bench," charging
documents state. "Mr. McCoy then noticed my vehicle and ran (southbound)
through a rear alleyway."

But the drugs had been placed there by the Internal Affairs Division of the
Police Department in a sting operation.

Sewell's cases - and those of other officers - are generally similar.
Reports detail what an officer believes is a suspicious drug transaction,
then the arrest and drug recovery - creating a case that hinges on the
officer's testimony.

On Aug. 25, Sewell alleged in charging documents that he and his partner
were driving in the 1500 block of Myrtle Ave., where a woman and a man
named Philip Grey "were observed in hand to hand transactions giving U.S.
currency ... to an unknown [man]."

When the pair saw the officers, they began to walk "quickly" away, and the
officers followed, the report says.

"As we approached Mr. Grey, (Officer Sewell) asked Mr. Grey, 'Do you have
anything on you?' Mr. Grey responded, 'Yeah, I got some dope in my pocket.'
Mr. Grey was placed under arrest. Search incident ... revealed three clear
gel-caps with white powder (suspected heroin) in Mr. Grey's right front
pants pocket," the report states.

Prosecutors dropped the case against Grey.

In another case that was dropped, Sewell wrote that he was "observing" the
800 block of Whitelock St. when he saw a drug deal taking place and decided
to go in for an arrest. As he went for the defendant, he said he saw him
push a bundle of suspected drugs through a mail slot.

"Said bundle was immediately recovered and found to be seven grey top glass
vials containing a white, rocky substance (suspected cocaine) wrapped in a
rubberband," his report states.

Officers say police need to focus on building stronger drug cases with more
evidence than what the police say they saw.

An undercover narcotics officer with more than a decade of experience said
patrol officers think the more arrests they make, the faster they will
climb the promotion ladder. As a result, they don't take the time needed to
develop good investigative skills, the officer said.

"This is a stat-driven department," the officer said. "You got to get
numbers and keep the crime down. You got to get that reputation: 'There's a
guy busting his tail and making gun and drug arrests.'"

Another officer who supervised a squad said street-level troops are
stretched so thin that they have "less time to do proper investigations."

"If you find a drug stash, how much time can you put into it?" that officer
said.