FIRED OFFICER RETAINS COGGINS

Ex-U.S. Attorney Has Criticized Police Over Fake-Drug Scandal

Paul Coggins, who served for eight years as the Department of Justice's top
prosecutor for North Texas, has taken over the criminal defense of a former
Dallas police narcotics officer indicted in the fake-drug scandal.

Mr. Coggins, a frequent media commentator on the scandal, appeared
Wednesday in federal court at the side of former Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz.
The fired officer pleaded not guilty to six federal charges during his
arraignment.

He is accused of submitting false reports on drug cases in which innocent
people were jailed on bogus evidence planted by paid police informants. If
convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The charges are the first against an officer since the FBI began
investigating 15 months ago. More than 80 tainted drug cases have been
dismissed.

A number of legal experts said Mr. Coggins' familiarity with federal
judges, investigative agencies and Justice Department strategies would
prove advantageous for the defendant.

Until his termination on Friday, Mr. Delapaz had his legal bills for
attorney Bob Baskett paid by the Dallas Police Association.

Mr. Coggins said his defense for Mr. Delapaz's scheduled June 30 trial
would focus on the role police commanders played. He said that Mr.
Delapaz's wife, a Dallas officer, asked him to defend her husband and that
his firm agreed to do it at "less than our corporate rate."

"The analogy that I would use is that Dallas has had an outbreak of food
poisoning, and they've nabbed the waiter," said Mr. Coggins, who has been
in private practice since leaving the U.S. attorney's office in February
2001. "We're going to shine the light in the kitchen and on the suits.
Mark's defense is going to be to get out as much of the story as he
possibly can."

Mr. Delapaz's former attorney said he would stay on to appeal the firing.
Mr. Baskett said that his client was robbed of his presumption of innocence
and that the firing broke department rules that require an internal affairs
investigation in which facts support specific policy violations. A
department statement issued Friday said the officer was being fired for
"adverse conduct" following an internal affairs review.

Mr. Baskett said no internal affairs investigation "of any substance" took
place as required. He noted that the department suspended its internal
investigation to make way for the FBI's inquiry.

"What happens if he's acquitted or the case is dismissed?" Mr. Baskett
asked. Internal affairs "called him in Friday and asked if he got indicted.
He said yes. They asked him if he did it. He said no. And that was it. They
sent him up to [Chief Terrell] Bolton. They can't do it the way they did it."

Police spokeswoman Janice Houston said the termination was handled correctly.

"The department followed its procedures in this case, as it does in all
cases," she said. "Delapaz does have appeal rights just like any officer."

Until recently, Mr. Coggins was representing former Texas Attorney General
Dan Morales in a high-profile public corruption case. Mr. Morales recently
opted for a government-paid public defender.

Mr. Coggins held out the possibility he may return to that case while also
defending Mr. Delapaz.

Several Dallas defense attorneys said Mr. Coggins' involvement should prove
challenging.

"He'll know what information in discovery to seek. ... He'll know how to
judge the importance of information contained in the FBI reports. He'll
know what the FBI will be able to do and not do," former U.S. Attorney
Marvin Collins said. "I would say that on balance it certainly is an
advantage to have someone intimately familiar with the federal system, the
judges and particularly the sentencing guidelines."

Dallas defense lawyer Reed Prospere said prosecutors would have a tough
case ahead with Mr. Coggins on board.

"You know that you're not going to win the case by out-lawyering the other
side," he said. "It forces somebody to look at their deficiencies in a
different light."

Since the fake-drug scandal became public in late December 2001, Mr.
Coggins has called for outside scrutiny of the Police Department's handling
of the scandal, emphasizing at one point "that if there are some bad apples
on the force, we're going to get rid of them."

On Wednesday, he said he was more convinced than ever that systemic
problems within the department led to the jailing of innocent people.

"The test is, what did they do about it?" he said. "I think that when that
test is given to Mark, he's going to pass with flying colors, but I think
there are others who are going to fail that test."