BIRTH OF A SCANDAL: TESTIMONY UNWINDS TALE OF JUSTICE DENIED

It all started in a bar with a pool table in it. That's where
46-year-old Enrique Alonzo, a former drug dealer with a fifth-grade
education, says he got the bright idea that grew into one of the
darkest hours of the Dallas Police Department - the fake drug scandal.

Mr. Alonzo testified last week in the trial of ex-police detective
Mark Delapaz, a former star in the department's narcotics division who
now stands accused of violating people's civil rights and then lying
about it to authorities.

Now in prison and cooperating with the government, Mr. Alonzo
testified how it was Mr. Delapaz who offered him the chance to become
an informant. For that service, Mr. Alonzo was going to be paid $1,000
per kilogram of confiscated drugs.

The trouble started when Mr. Alonzo made two discoveries. The first
was that Mr. Delapaz, according to Mr. Alonzo, didn't make a habit of
testing drug evidence. The second - which came when Mr. Alonzo was
having a drink in that bar with the pool table in it - was that the
powdery substance on the table looked a lot like cocaine.

Mr. Alonzo began to think that he could increase his take, if he
packaged billiard chalk to look like cocaine and planted it on
suspecting Mexican immigrants. That was the plan. And it worked like a
charm. That is, until one of the defendants refused to plead guilty
and his lawyer demanded that prosecutors test the evidence. You know
the results. Eventually, more than 80 pending or adjudicated drug
cases were dismissed. Those in jail - some of them for more than a
year - were released.

This is an amazing story, but sadly it doesn't come with a happy
ending. The victims of the police scandal have suffered a devastating
experience, and the public's confidence in the criminal justice system
of North Texas has been shaken to its core. Whether or not Mr. Delapaz
is guilty of the charges against him, one has to hope that other
police officers - not to mention judges, juries, prosecutors and
defense attorneys - have learned a lesson. The phrase "innocent until
proven guilty" should not be taken lightly - not by anyone.

After all, it's one of the best protections we have against oppression
and tyranny.