EX-OFFICER'S DRUG REPORTS CALLED 'FAIRY TALES' AT TRIAL

Prosecutors Rest Case Against Delapaz; Final Arguments Today

Final arguments in the trial of former Dallas narcotics detective Mark
Delapaz are expected today after prosecutors rested their case Tuesday
against the officer at the center of the 2001 fake-drug scandal.

Attorneys for Mr. Delapaz told District Judge Mark Nancarrow that they will
present a limited number of witnesses before sending the case to jurors.

Special prosecutor Dan Hagood presented 21 witnesses over 12 days of
testimony as he worked to prove that Mr. Delapaz continued to work with a
confidential drug informant even after he was aware that the informant was
responsible for numerous drug seizures that were found to contain little or
no real drugs.

Special Report

Fake Drugs, Real Lives: An interactive timeline featuring in-depth
information, facts and figures from the scandal in the DPD.

Mr. Delapaz is charged with lying in a sworn search warrant application
when he said the informant who had supplied information to him about drug
activity was always "reliable."

In testimony Tuesday, a Department of Public Safety investigator who
examined Mr. Delapaz's undercover narcotics work in 2001 described the
officer's police reports as "fairy tales."

DPS Sgt. David Eldridge said the descriptions of Mr. Delapaz's
investigations stand against common sense. In many of the cases, Mr.
Delapaz wrote in police reports that drug dealers had "fronted" large
amounts of purported narcotics without requiring immediate payment.

"You don't front $500,000 worth of dope to somebody you don't know," he
said. "Dope deals just don't happen that way."

Such a scenario is even less likely if a dealer is trying to rip someone
off by selling fake drugs, he said. "If you sell somebody a bunch of
Sheetrock, they're going to come looking for you," he said.

Three informants who worked with Mr. Delapaz have admitted to fabricating
drugs out of crushed pool chalk and setting up innocent people for arrest.
Mr. Delapaz paid the men nearly $300,000 in cash police payments for
supplying the information that led to the bogus arrests.

While Mr. Delapaz is not charged with taking part in the conspiracy to
arrest innocent people, Sgt. Eldridge testified that Mr. Delapaz should
have known his informant was not trustworthy by the time he secured the
October 2001 search warrant.

In addition to the single charge he faces in trial, Mr. Delapaz has been
indicted on 13 other felony counts related to the drug cases. If convicted
on the single charge of lying to the judge, Mr. Delapaz faces punishment
ranging from probation to 10 years in prison.