JUDGE SETS ASIDE DRUG CONVICTION

Officials Suspect Deceit In Getting Search Warrant

A judge set aside a 3-year-old drug conviction yesterday at the request of
prosecutors, who believe the search warrant that led to the man's arrest
was obtained through deceit.

The conviction of George Spencer III is the eighth to be set aside
involving two indicted, former Metro Narcotics detectives, Mark Watson and
Christie Richardson, said prosecutor Alex Dathorne, a Jefferson County
assistant commonwealth's attorney.

That's in addition to the dismissals at the request of the commonwealth's
attorney's office of 18 cases involving 32 individuals that had been
pending in circuit court and nine other cases, involving 17 people, that
were dismissed before indictment, Dathorne said.

Watson and Richardson are accused of fabricating information to obtain
search warrants, tampering with drug evidence and forging judges'
signatures. They each face more than 450 charges of burglary, tampering
with public records, perjury and theft.

Dathorne said that the request for a search warrant in Spencer's case
contained information that a confidential informant denies having told
police. Watson and Richardson were detectives on Spencer's case.

Watson and Richardson have pleaded innocent to the charges against them and
resigned from the Louisville-Jefferson County narcotics unit. If convicted,
they could get up to 70 years in prison.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Thomas B. Wine signed an order yesterday setting
aside Spencer's 1999 conviction on charges of illegal possession of a
controlled substance, cocaine, and illegal possession of drug paraphernalia.

Spencer had entered an Alford plea, in which he acknowledged the evidence
was sufficient to produce a guilty verdict but maintained his innocence.

''It was just crazy to me,'' Spencer said in an interview. ''All I know is
that I really wasn't guilty.''

Spencer said he pleaded guilty because he had a prior felony conviction and
could have received a longer sentence if he had fought the charge.

Spencer said that when he saw news stories earlier this year on the
indictment of Watson and Richardson, he immediately called his attorney and
probation officers.

''He told me at the time (of the charge that) he didn't have any drugs in
the house,'' said Mark Chandler, Spencer's attorney.

Chandler filed a motion in June to have the conviction set aside. A hearing
was set for this week, but Dathorne, the prosecutor, filed a motion
agreeing to set aside the conviction.

Regardless of Spencer's plea, ''we felt in the interest of justice that
that was the right thing to do,'' Dathorne said.

Spencer was sentenced to three years in prison in 1999 and was paroled in
January 2001.

The charges in the 1999 indictment were part of the reason Spencer's
probation was revoked in a 1997 case in which Spencer had pleaded guilty to
two charges of trafficking in a controlled substance.

In March 1999, his probation was revoked in that case and he was ordered to
serve seven years. He was released in that case in October 1999 and placed
on probation for five years.

''If it wasn't for me being charged, I would have never been revoked,''
Spencer said.

Spencer said he would like to have his probation period returned to its
original expiration, which he said would have been in December. Otherwise,
he said, he'll continue on probation until 2004.

Spencer, 28, of Lyndon, said he now works for a supply company and has a
5-year-old daughter.

Having his conviction erased doesn't make up for spending nearly two years
in prison, Spencer said.

''It's definitely left a scar,'' he said. ''It took two years away from my
family and my child. It was a lot of strain on me and my family.''