SORDID TALE OF JUSTICE

The story behind the dismissal of criminal drug charges against Loudonville
physician Darroch Moores has grown more intriguing - and disturbing - with
the disclosure that Albany Public Safety Commissioner John C. Nielsen met
with Assistant District Attorney Francisco Calderon shortly before Calderon
decided to dismiss the charges.

Nielsen claims he didn't tell Calderon to drop the cocaine possession
charge against the well-known, well-heeled thoracic surgeon, but it
certainly sounds as if he tried to influence the ADA.

"I knew it [the case] was going to be difficult . . . this thing has the
potential for being a disaster," the chief says he told Calderon shortly
after being paid an unannounced visit by Moores. That was March 12, the day
after Moores' car was pulled over near a notorious Albany drug corner for
running a red light. As police approached the car, they saw Moores throw
two rocks of cocaine out the window.

Moores' version of the story was that a drug dealer whom he'd never seen
before hopped into his car while he was sitting at the light, causing him
to panic. He claimed the dealer had dropped a piece of the crack in his
car, and two pieces on the ground as he fled at the sight of police. This
is the kind of far-fetched tale that caught-redhanded defendants often spin
in court - before being found guilty and led away in handcuffs. For Moores,
it worked so well he didn't even have to stand trial; case dismissed.

Only afterward, Nielsen and the DA's office say, did anyone bother to
consult the arresting officers' report, which stated that Moores - and not
some mysterious drug dealer - threw the crack out the window.

Nielsen says Moores didn't threaten him with a lawsuit at their meeting,
only that he was embarrassed and contrite. But Nielsen acknowledged that it
was the fear of such a suit, "the need to protect my officers," that
prompted him to seek out Calderon.

Whether Moores did or did not make any threats, whether Nielsen's fear of a
lawsuit was real or merely paranoia, does not justify his apparent effort
to influence the prosecuting attorney. Nor were they grounds for the
prosecuting attorney to drop charges.

If every defendant with a big mouth and a fancy lawyer could get away with
such tactics, who would there be left in jail? We suspect that Alice Green,
Anne Pope and other advocates for the poor and minorities have a ready
answer to that question.