WARRANT IN FATAL DRUG RAID CONTESTED

FORT WORTH - A state district judge announced Friday that he will rule Oct.
12 on a motion to disallow a 1999 search warrant on the house of true-crime
writer Barbara Davis, whose son was killed that year during a drug raid in
North Richland Hills.

If the search warrant is ruled invalid, the move would be a blow to
prosecutors in a drug case against Davis, court officials said.

Senior District Judge C.C. "Kit" Cooke gave attorneys four weeks to submit
information about the warrant, which led to Davis' arrest and the shooting
death of her son, Troy Davis, 25.

The warrant was the basis for officers to converge on the house where the
Davises lived. The warrant states that police suspected the two of growing
"a substantial amount of marijuana."

During a brief motion hearing Friday, Bill Lane of Fort Worth, Barbara
Davis' attorney, grilled North Richland Hills police Sgt. Andy Wallace
about the validity of the warrant.

Wallace testified that two of Davis' relatives were police informants and
that one of them was sent to the house to obtain drugs.

"Did you ever see him go into their home and get the drugs, as you had told
him to do?" Lane asked Wallace.

"No," Wallace said. "I believe he went in, but I never saw him."

"So you depended on the word of someone that you had never met?" Lane said.

"Yes," Wallace said. "But I had talked to his father about him."

That was part of the information used in the warrant. Troy Davis was
fatally shot Dec. 15, 1999, as 17 tactical team officers converged on the
house. Police said he was pointing a loaded 9 mm pistol at officers when he
was shot by tactical team member Allen Hill.

In connection with the raid, Barbara Davis, 50, was charged with possession
of a controlled substance, 4 ounces to 200 grams.

The Tarrant County district attorney's office has dropped a possession of
controlled substance/marijuana charge against her.

Police said they found three marijuana plants and enough of the designer
drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, to make 600 doses. Police also found 16
guns, all of them legal, authorities said.

Barbara Davis and her attorneys have said that Troy Davis was armed because
his mother had received death threats related to her writing. She has also
said that the raid was improper because it was based on a tip from a
disgruntled relative.

A Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Hill in the shooting. He has
resigned from the Police Department.