U.S. ATTORNEY ENDS POLICE INQUIRY

Federal officials said Wednesday that they have no plans to look any
further into reports from a mid-1990s investigation saying Austin police
officers conspired with drug traffickers and took drugs while on duty.

"Unless new information comes to light, this is it," U.S. attorney
spokesman Daryl Fields said.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg said that if there had
been enough evidence to indict and convict any of the officers named during
the investigation -- code-named "Mala Sangre," or Bad Blood -- his office
would have done so.

Blagg's comments come after a weeklong review of documents from Mala Sangre.

"No officer of the Austin Police Department was ever called before the
federal grand jury, charged or indicted in connection with the
investigation," Blagg said. "Had there been credible, admissible evidence
that any officer had committed a federal criminal offense, charges would
have been pursued at the time."

APD Assistant Chief Mike McDonald said the department maintained contact
with the U.S. attorney's office during the investigation and that Blagg's
statement was what they expected.

"They've told us all along that if they felt anything was there, they would
have looked into it," McDonald said.

The Mala Sangre task force was led by the Internal Revenue Service and
included Austin police officers, who helped perform surveillance and other
investigative tasks.

The investigation centered on Austin-based drug dealer Roger Lopez, who was
convicted of drug trafficking in 1998 and sentenced to seven years in
prison. The investigation broadened to include police officers after
confidential informants reported that officers were using drugs and that at
least two officers were aiding Lopez.

Lead investigators had claimed that the Austin Police Department cut the
inquiry short by transferring officers to other duties. In addition, three
officers filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the City of Austin,
claiming that they were transferred to halt the investigation into police
misconduct.

Mala Sangre's lead investigators IRS agent Wayne Young and Austin officer
Stan Farris wrote a "summary of allegations" and a chronology listing
possible police misconduct that couldn't be fully investigated without
police support. Those reports were filed in a separate whistleblower
lawsuit against the city, which Capt. Cecil Huff settled last month for $6,000.

The department has denied that officers were transferred to curtail the
investigation.

"If officers are suspected of wrongdoing in a local jurisdiction, a local
jurisdiction cannot shut down a federal investigation," McDonald said.

Should further information surface, "We won't hesitate to investigate," he said.