JUDGE SIGNS OFF ON RELEASE IN DRUG CASE

Questionable Informant May Lead Prosecutors To Drop Charges

A Dallas judge set the stage Thursday for a 22-year-old Mexican citizen to
be freed two years after his conviction on drug delivery charges that were
based on perjured testimony from a questionable police informant.

While awaiting word from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, state
District Judge Henry Wade Jr. agreed Jaime Chavez could be released on a
personal recognizance bond.

Defense attorney Juan Sanchez said Judge Wade agreed Mr. Chavez should be
released from jail until the appeals court grants him a new trial in a
February 2000 drug raid in Oak Cliff. Prison officials in Austin released
their hold after receiving word of the judge's decision, and Mr. Chavez was
set to be released from the Dallas County Jail overnight.

Prosecutors have said that they would dismiss the first-degree felony
charges against Mr. Chavez once a new trial is granted.

The informant, Enrique Martinez Alonso, in an affidavit filed as part of
Mr. Chavez's appeal, said that he lied when he testified that Mr. Chavez
displayed a large plastic trash bag of methamphetamine while three other
men negotiated a drug buy.

In February, two other men who skipped bond and fled after their arrests in
the same raid had their pending charges dropped by prosecutors. But because
Mr. Chavez had been convicted by a jury - with key testimony provided by
Mr. Alonso - prosecutors said neither they, nor the trial judge, had the
jurisdiction to reverse the jury's decision.

"I think the media attention and the affidavit pushed Jaime's case over the
top," Mr. Sanchez said. "But how much more evidence do you need, if this
guy's recanting his testimony?

"[Mr. Alonso's affidavit] made it a lot easier for the judge to agree that
Jaime doesn't need to be in jail," Mr. Sanchez said. "Judge Wade did the
right thing."

The case generated a public debate among defense lawyers and prosecutors
about how to free the handful of people still serving prison terms from
cases tainted by questionable arrests by police working with their
confidential informants.

Mr. Alonso is among three former police informants who have pleaded guilty
to federal civil rights charges of planting fake drugs on dozens of
innocent people. The informants are cooperating with an FBI investigation
of the Dallas Police Department's narcotics unit. The district attorney's
office has dismissed more than 85 cases related to the scandal.

Mr. Chavez, who moved to Dallas from Mexico less than a year before his
arrest, maintained from the day of his arrest that his only crime was
accepting an invitation to dinner with one of the men with whom he was
arrested. Although the raid netted methamphetamine, the case was included
among those cases marked as tainted in the fake drug scandal because of Mr.
Alonso's involvement.

Last month, Mr. Chavez said in an interview from jail that he was
frustrated by the judicial process to undo his conviction. He hasn't seen
his young children in at least six months since his wife moved to live with
relatives in Arizona.

Today, Mr. Sanchez quoted his client's reaction to the decision: "I can't
believe justice finally got done."

Mr. Sanchez said Mr. Chavez's brother, Pablo Chavez, flew from Mexico to be
in Dallas when his brother is released. He will stay with friends in Dallas
until his legal troubles are officially over, Mr. Sanchez said.

Mr. Alonso's statement, filed in civil court, provided no clue whether
police officers encouraged or knew about his false testimony, but was clear
about the role Mr. Chavez played.

"The testimony I gave concerning Jaime Chavez's action and his knowledge of
the fact that there was methamphetamine in the black plastic bag was
false," the document signed by Mr. Alonso read. "I have no independent
recollection of Jaime Chavez's participation in the drug transaction.

"I identified Jaime Chavez as the person who showed me the drugs because I
was told that it was necessary to obtain a conviction, and I was in the
process of working off my own narcotics case to avoid a 15-year prison
sentence."