2 IN FAKE-DRUG CASE FALSELY CONVICTED BUT STUCK IN PRISON

Two Dallas men wrongfully convicted on the testimony of a tainted
undercover police drug informant may be paroled from prison before a
lengthy appeals process clears them, their lawyers said.

Defense attorneys Juan Sanchez and Michael Hawk said that the Dallas County
district attorney refuses to back measures used in the past that could free
at least two men whose felony drug convictions relied heavily on the
testimony of a corrupt police informant.

First Assistant District Attorney Mike Carnes agreed that convictions won
against Jaime Chavez and Manuel Rodriguez Garcia should be overturned and
dismissed. But, he said, his office is only following the letter of the
law, which puts the issue of undoing their convictions in the state's
highest criminal appeals court.

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The prosecutor in a police corruption scandal two years ago said he sought
- - and got - a new trial and subsequent dismissal in a single day for a man
who was imprisoned based on testimony from a Dallas patrol officer who had
been convicted of stealing money from drug dealers.

And, the attorney said, Mr. Carnes signed off on the request.

"We've since discovered that that wasn't the appropriate way to go," said
Mr. Carnes, who added that his office's appellate lawyers determined the
new trial and dismissal format used two years ago shouldn't have been
filed. The judge who signed off on the case had no jurisdiction, he said.

Mr. Hawk said he believes the district attorney's office could find a way
to free the men.

"Who cares about procedure and wording as long as the right thing is done
here?" Mr. Hawk said. "The DA's office has the means to set these people
free today, if they want to. We have the DA's office throwing up their
hands and saying there was a mistake, but nobody wants to cut these guys
loose."

Clark Birdsall, who prosecuted former Dallas officers Quentis Roper and
Daniel Maples in 2000 for stealing more than $100,000 from drug dealers,
said he got a 1998 felony drug conviction against John Harp dismissed after
Mr. Roper's jury conviction.

With the same laws in effect, and a 2-year-old conviction against Mr. Harp,
Mr. Birdsall said it took less than a day to complete paperwork for a new
trial against the man - who had a criminal record - and then dismiss the
case. A judge signed off on the request because the district attorney stood
behind it, he said.

'Now It's Not Proper'

For Mr. Chavez and Mr. Garcia, both of whom have no previous criminal
records in Dallas County, the same rules apparently don't apply, Mr.
Birdsall said. "We dismissed the case because [Mr. Harp] shouldn't have
been in jail," Mr. Birdsall said. "Apparently, the DA is saying now it's
not proper, but it was back then. Somewhere, they've lost sight of the goal
of the law."

Mr. Carnes said his office would "join in any legal procedure available to
get these people some relief " - as long as it falls under the law.

"And that's what we've done since February," he said.

Larry Mitchell, an appeals lawyer in Dallas with no ties to either case,
said the district attorney's office is correct in pointing to the Court of
Criminal Appeals for relief.

"If everyone's in agreement these men should be freed, and there's no one
to complain about this 'out-of-time' procedure, no problem," Mr. Mitchell
said. "But it's absolutely not the appropriate thing to do within the law.

"I'm sure Mr. Birdsall was simply trying to do the right thing two years
ago, but it was completely inappropriate," he said.

Mr. Birdsall said: "What's more inappropriate than these two men sitting in
jail on a wrongful conviction?"

Mr. Chavez and Mr. Garcia were arrested in separate Dallas police narcotics
raids set up by Enrique Martinez Alonso long before fake drugs began
showing up as evidence seized in the busts he engineered.

At the time, Mr. Alonso was "working off" a 1999 felony bust for peddling
more than a pound of methamphetamine to an undercover police informant and
Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz. Mr. Alonso, who has agreed to plead guilty to
federal civil rights charges in connection with the cases, later was paid
more than $200,000 by Dallas police for raids he set up.

Co-defendants in both men's cases skipped bond and fled. Because their
cases were pending when the fake-drug scandal broke in January, their cases
were dismissed earlier this year.

Both cases against Mr. Chavez and Mr. Garcia netted narcotics, so the issue
was Mr. Alonso's testimony implicating the two men as active players in the
staged drug buy.

Mr. Sanchez, who first tried to free Mr. Chavez in late January, approached
prosecutors with Mr. Harp's case as a template after a local appeals court
ruled in February that it had no jurisdiction to grant a re-trial because
more than six months had elapsed since the October 2000 verdict.

When Mr. Sanchez went to prosecutors to pitch the motion for a new trial,
however, he said prosecutors backed away.

Mr. Chavez, who will be sent back to state prison soon, said he's asking
only for the same justice given to his two co-defendants who skipped bail
and fled: a dismissal.

He said he wants his name cleared, "especially now that everyone knows the
accusations were false. The only reason I went to trial was because I was
sure the jury would find me innocent."

'Shouldn't Be In Jail'

Mr. Sanchez worries that Mr. Chavez may be paroled before his case comes
back to Dallas to be dismissed. Mr. Chavez frets over his wife and two
young children, whom he hasn't seen in more than a year. "The problem is
Jaime shouldn't be in jail, and my argument was it's the right procedure if
it gets him out of jail," Mr. Sanchez said, adding that he waited to file
his client's appeal until last week while Mr. Chavez's family checked for
other options with appeals lawyers.

Mr. Hawk said he took an unopposed path to appeal for Mr. Garcia six months
ago, to no avail. In mid-March, Mr. Hawk said he filed the proper appeal to
a local judge who signed off on it, then forwarded it to the state's
highest criminal appeals court.

Since then, there has been no word from the court. The Court of Criminal
Appeals has no time limit in which to respond.

Mr. Carnes said that he also thought the appeals process would be shorter,
but that his office had virtually no options. He said a pardon or
commutation by the governor or appeals to a federal court were other
possible solutions for Mr. Chavez and Mr. Garcia.

Mr. Sanchez said that because prosecutors joined his request to the lower
appeals court, he made the mistake of assuming they wouldn't oppose the
appeal, and he told Mr. Chavez so in May when he was brought to Dallas from
prison.

"I'm afraid I gave Jaime false hope about getting out," Mr. Sanchez said.