COPS GUILTY OF RACKETEERING

Jury: They Stole From Drug Houses, Gave Protection

Three Detroit police officers were convicted Friday of drug
racketeering, civil-rights abuses and extortion after a jury concluded
they looted drug houses and gamblers, and offered protection to a
pot-selling party-store owner in their patrol of the gritty 5th
(Jefferson) Precinct.

The trio -- Rodney Rice, Irvin Lamont Upshaw and Larone Cook -- will be
sentenced July 31, prosecutors said. The most serious charge, of
racketeering, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000
fine.

The officers were acquitted of other charges involving drugs, guns and
violence by jurors in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

A fourth cop -- Christopher Cole -- was acquitted of all the conspiracy,
racketeering and extortion charges. He broke into tears as he hugged his
lawyer, Anthony Chambers, outside the courtroom, and then departed.

Chambers said Cole would seek reinstatement to the department.

"We're pleased by the jury's verdict," said Jonathan Tukel, an assistant
U.S. attorney. The verdicts capped a three-year investigation involving
the FBI and the internal affairs division of the Detroit Police
Department.

Lawyers for the convicted officers expressed disappointment. They
criticized the government witnesses, many of whom they intimated were
lowlifes seeking revenge against the cops who patrolled their
neighborhoods.

"He didn't do anything," declared defense attorney Steven Fishman of his
client, Upshaw.

The verdicts are the latest embarrassment for the department, which is
reeling from a U.S. Justice Department probe into questionable police
shootings, alleged mistreatment of prisoners and other problems.

The case arose from a 1998 report that a small band of officers in the
5th Precinct may have been robbing and threatening or protecting drug
houses and dealers on the city's east side. FBI agents interviewed
several officers in the precinct in hopes of weeding out rogue cops.

A fifth officer, Mark Heath, earlier pleaded guilty to misconduct in
state court and received a one-year sentence.

The trio convicted Friday was acquitted on the case's most colorful
charge involving providing protection to drug organizations. Rice, a
13-year veteran at the time of his arrest, was accused of failing to
appear at a drug trial in return for a payoff, resulting in that case's
dismissal.

The three were accused of giving the drug organization advance warning
of upcoming police drug raids.

Jurors weren't convinced.