EX-COP'S TRIAL WINDING DOWN

Prosecutor Begins Closing Arguments

Standing in front of a jury, a federal prosecutor Wednesday held up Joseph
Miedzianowski's police badge and service revolver to make his point that
the former Chicago police officer had used both to allegedly protect gang
members and dealers affiliated with his drug ring.

"With this badge and this gun, and all the power of the Chicago Police
Department, Joseph Miedzianowski was supposed to take drugs off the
street," Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lausch said. "Joseph Miedzianowski did
the opposite."

The evidence, Lausch said, was overwhelming and showed that Miedzianowski
and four co-defendants on trial with him were guilty of distributing powder
and crack cocaine onto city streets from 1994 through their arrests in 1998.

As Lausch gave his closing argument, Miedzianowski's wife rubbed the back
of their teenage son, whose photo with a gang leader, taken in the
Miedzianowskis' Northwest Side home in 1993, had come to symbolize for
prosecutors a corrupt relationship between the former officer and drug dealers.

Miedzianowski calmly listened to Lausch's closing, occasionally conferring
with one of his two lawyers, Thomas Breen.

Earlier in the day, lawyers for the defendants rested their cases. Lausch
spoke for about two hours, getting a little more than halfway through his
closing argument, before court was adjourned for the afternoon.

Lausch will resume Thursday morning. Defense lawyers will follow, but they
might not finish their closings until Monday in a trial that has lasted for
two months.

Miedzianowski, 48, a 22-year veteran of the Police Department, had
testified earlier in his defense that he was an honest cop who made
thousands of arrests. He said prosecution witnesses had made up stories
about him.

He is on trial with four accused co-conspirators, Mohamed S. Omar Jr.,
Lissett Rivera, Omar Feliciano and Alina Lis, Miedzianowski's former
girlfriend.

In his closing, Lausch told jurors that Lis was more than the former
officer's girlfriend, arguing she was a "frequent flier" of drugs and money
between Chicago and Miami.

FBI wiretapped conversations, Lausch said, also showed that Miedzianowski
was the key to helping the conspiracy flourish, because he protected the
ring's members from honest cops, blessed relationships between potentially
rival dealers and ensured that drugs were delivered.

Lausch also displayed a poster-size enlarged photograph taken in 1993 of
Miedzianowski's son, then 10 years old, being embraced by a smiling gang
leader, Nelson Padilla. Padilla, a co-defendant in the drug case, pleaded
guilty earlier and is cooperating with authorities.

"Look at the comfort level," Lausch told jurors. "Nelson Padilla is a
business partner of Joseph Miedzianowski.... These are pictures among friends."

The evidence also included testimony from about a dozen other
co-defendants, who already had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with
federal authorities.

Anticipating that defense lawyers in their closings will attack those
witnesses as convicted felons, Lausch told jurors, "A conspiracy like this
one, ladies and gentleman, a conspiracy from hell is not made up of angels."

Lausch also argued that the drug ring's buyers and suppliers are the best
witnesses against Miedzianowski because they provide an inside view.

"He abused his position as a Chicago police officer and violated his
authority to serve and protect," Lausch said. "What he did along the way
was to become a drug dealer."