WARRANT ALTERED, LAWYER SAYS

Detective Is Accused of Forging Judge's initials

TAMPA -- A Hillsborough circuit judge says someone forged his
initials on an altered search warrant used to arrest a man on drug
trafficking charges.

Ruskin defense attorney Paul S. Carr believes a member of the
Hillsborough Sheriff's Office is responsible.

Those revelations Tuesday had sheriff's authorities suggesting it was
a misunderstanding and prosecutors vowing to look into the alleged
discrepancies. If true, they could jeopardize a drug bust that netted
large amounts of prescription pills, plus cash, cocaine and marijuana.

Carr wants his client's case dismissed.

"You cannot commit crimes to catch criminals," he said.

On Oct. 13, 2006, Circuit Judge Chet A. Tharpe signed a search
warrant allowing detectives to hunt for drugs in a Brandon apartment.
Under oath, Detective Ronnie Cooper told the judge that an informer
had on two occasions purchased oxycodone pills from Christopher Snipes there.

The detective believed that the residence was being used as a
distribution point and supply house for oxycodone, court records show.

During an Oct. 14 search led by Cooper, deputies found drugs, a
pistol, drug paraphernalia in the apartment and $5,953 in Snipes'
pocket, arrest records show.

They said Snipes, 25, admitted that the drugs were his. He was
arrested on multiple charges that carry a 25-year minimum mandatory
prison sentence.

Snipes hired Carr in March.

By then, public defenders had failed to convince a judge to throw out
the evidence against Snipes on the grounds that detectives searched
the wrong apartment.

The original search warrant was for an apartment numbered 203. But
someone had crossed out that number in two places and replaced it
with 208. Snipes' public defenders said detectives had not provided
probable cause to search 208; Circuit Judge Daniel Sleet denied their motion.

The handwritten changes, rare though not unheard of, also caught
Carr's attention.

But as the attorney sat in bed one night reviewing the case,
something else stuck out.

The initials "CAT" had been written in twice alongside the revised
apartment numbers. Those are Tharpe's initials.

However, Carr didn't think the pair of initials matched the judge's
handwriting. He took his suspicions and samples of Tharpe's
penmanship to handwriting experts. Two forensic document examiners
agreed that someone other than Tharpe altered the search warrant.

Carr didn't realize his client had already written Tharpe a letter in
February, asking the judge to verify whether the initials by the
revised numbers were his.

"The initials do not look like your handwriting compared to the
actual warrant, and I believe Detective Cooper changed it on his
own," Snipes wrote.

In his sworn statement May 7, Tharpe was adamant that he did not
alter the search warrant.

"The handwritten alterations and initials ... are not my true
initials, is not my handwriting and were not placed there by me," Tharpe said.

Carr thinks the changes likely were made by Cooper or Deputy Stuart
Bell, who helped supervise the case's informer.

Bell was fired after his own arrest in January, accused by internal
affairs detectives of stealing prescription bottles from a suspect's
house, falsifying two incident reports and doctor shopping for
prescription medication.

In his motion to dismiss Snipes' case, Carr said whoever changed the
search warrant should be investigated for charges including forgery,
official misconduct, perjury and false arrest.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said the agency has confidence in
Cooper, whom she called an exemplary employee since his 1997 hiring.

Carter said officials were looking into the allegations.

"At this point, there's a possibility of a misunderstanding," she
said. "The judge signs hundreds of documents for us, and it could
just be a matter of memory."

Michael Sinacore, felony bureau chief for the Hillsborough State
Attorney's Office, said prosecutors would investigate the validity of
the search warrant.

After a court hearing for her son Tuesday, Brenda Snipes admitted he
wasn't a "total angel." Christopher Snipes already has been sentenced
to 15 years in prison for a March 2006 armed drug trafficking case in
Pinellas County. But "it doesn't matter," his mother said. "This is
still wrong."