MEGGS SAYS HE WON'T PROSECUTE DEA CASES

State Attorney Willie Meggs has advised state and local
law-enforcement agencies that he will no longer prosecute cases that
involve federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Meggs' decision, outlined in a letter sent to agencies Wednesday,
follows last week's grand-jury hearing in which DEA agents were not
allowed to testify voluntarily in the Rachel Hoffman case.

"It's probably more symbolic than it is substantive, but I am very
serious about it," Meggs, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit,
said Thursday. "I'm just not going to play that little game with those
folks. ... I can't work with people who don't cooperate."

Hoffman, 23, was working as a confidential informant for the
Tallahassee Police Department in May when she was killed in a botched
drug sting. Three DEA officers were involved in the operation.

Grand jurors, in a scathing presentment Friday that deemed TPD
negligent in Hoffman's death, recommended that the department not work
with the DEA until the agents are allowed to testify.

Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell took that recommendation to heart
immediately. Friday he met with his command staff and instructed them
to cease working with the DEA until it would cooperate with the State
Attorney's Office, said spokesman Tony Drzewiecki.

Campbell also told his command staff to resolve any outstanding cases
involving DEA agents as quickly as possible.

"We are going to take direction from the State Attorney's Office based
on their memorandum yesterday, but we had already taken this action,"
Drzewiecki said.

DEA is aware of Meggs' letter, spokeswoman Jeannette Moran said, and
has no further comment beyond a statement released after the
presentment. In that statement Mark R. Trouville, the DEA's special
agent in charge of the Miami Field Division, said:

"We feel it is important for the public to know that DEA did not
refuse to testify before the grand jury in this case. ... In order to
comply, the State Attorney's Office simply needed to issue a subpoena
and provide the local United States Attorney's Office a summary of the
information sought and its relevance to the proceeding."

Meggs said subpoenaing the agents would provide them with
immunity.

"If they said something, I could not use it against them," he said. "I
wanted them to come in and talk and tell the grand jury what their
role was."

In his letter, Meggs advised law-enforcement officials that if they
wanted DEA involvement in their investigations, they should first
contact the U.S. attorney to make sure he would prosecute the case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee referred calls to its
Pensacola office, where no one could be reached for comment.

TPD spokesman David McCranie could not be reached Thursday
afternoon.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald M. Bailey
released this statement:

"The Florida Department of Law Enforcement works closely with State
Attorney Willie Meggs and we will honor the direction he has taken.
FDLE has pending investigations that involve the DEA, and we
appreciate his commitment to prosecuting those cases.

"FDLE has a long-standing relationship with the DEA. With regards to
FDLE's future involvement with DEA in investigations and Task Forces
in the 2nd Judicial Circuit, we will proceed with these cases with an
eye towards federal prosecution."

Said spokeswoman Sandi Copes: "The Attorney General's Office does not have
jurisdiction over the local state attorneys."

Meggs said the DEA is not involved in the majority of drug cases he
prosecutes. State and local law-enforcement agencies, he said, aren't
being punished by his decision.

"If these agencies want to work with them and do their cases with
them, that's fine," Meggs said. "The DEA needs local law enforcement
more than local law enforcement needs DEA."