EX-SNITCH ACCUSES TASK FORCE

KERRVILLE - A former confidential informant has charged that at least one
case was fabricated, evidence was mishandled and reports were falsified by
officers during her brief undercover stint last year for a drug task force.

But beyond the specific allegations, Tamarah "Lexi" Barton's account of
working as a snitch offers an unflattering glimpse inside the shadowy world
of undercover operations that target low-level drug dealers.

Defendants, probationers and paid informants are recruited to help officers
pierce the secrecy of the illicit trade.

Barton, herself a drug case defendant, also claims in court motions that
officers Dallas Bingley and Everett Alexander improperly targeted a lawyer
for investigation, routinely drank beer while driving on duty and often
used racial slurs.

The men, part of the 216th Judicial District Narcotics Task Force that
operates in Kerr, Kendall, Bandera and Gillespie counties, declined comment.

Bill Hill, commander of the 10-member task force, said the officers denied
the accusations. And he discounted Barton's charges against Bingley, a Kerr
County deputy; and Alexander, an Ingram deputy marshal.

"I'm not concerned about those allegations because I know there's not going
to be any validity to them," Hill said.

But Hill confirmed that Bingley was reassigned last month after one of
Barton's claims was substantiated - that she and a suspect used a task
force truck to make a drug deal.

State District Judge Steve Ables appointed a special prosecutor in April to
look into the charges, and the Texas Rangers are investigating. Becoming a
snitch

Last May marked the second time Barton was arrested on drug charges.

She served probation after being busted as a teen-ager, said Barton, 30,
but had since cleaned up her act.

But she was jailed after a friend - an informant - convinced her to act as
the go-between on a drug deal as a favor, she said.

Once in custody, Barton said she was pressured into being a snitch.

"Alexander questioned me and threatened me that if I did not give them five
names of people they could bust I would not be getting out of jail at all,"
said Barton, who is out on bond while her case is pending. "I was certain I
was going to go to prison and would lose my son and my baby."

She and prosecutors entered into a "contract" under which she would have
received probation in return for aiding in five drug arrests. Hill said 29
of the 47 confidential informants who worked for the task force last year
did so under such agreements. Only nine defendants successfully completed
their contracts, he said.

Barton, pregnant at the time, quit being an informant after about one month
of nights spent at bars with Bingley and Alexander, who she said drank
heavily and urged her to offer drugs to friends and strangers alike.

"They said that sometimes they bought so much dope and had it stuffed in
their pockets that they forgot who gave them what and how much, so they
just wrote anything down," Barton said of the officers in a sworn
statement. "From what I experienced and what I saw, there's no reason they
should have a badge."

Drug Deals

Barton said she made one drug deal as a snitch before a guilty conscience
and distaste for Bingley and Alexander led her to quit.

But she was called last fall to testify to grand jurors about two cocaine
sales the task force claimed were made to her.

Despite Barton's disavowal of a second deal, grand jurors issued
indictments charging a suspect with making two drug sales to Barton.

Assistant District Attorney Lucy Cavazos defended her decision to present
both cases after Barton had told her that only one drug deal had occurred.

"Either she's lying or the officers are; that's why it's presented to the
grand jury," Cavazos said. "We don't decide what cases are going to go
forward, the grand jury does."

Barton's attorney, Bob Galvan, didn't accept that explanation.

"A legitimate prosecutor would have held back both cases and called the
cops and said, 'What's going on here?'" he said.

Galvan has accused Cavazos in court motions of complicity with any task
force misconduct.

Cavazos denied the charge and said claims of official misconduct are
nothing new from Galvan.

Lawyer's Charges

Galvan, too, has accused task force officers of misconduct. In court
motions, he charged that Bingley used his badge to settle a personal
vendetta against Galvan.

According to Barton, Bingley and Alexander wanted her to offer Galvan drugs
as payment for her legal bills.

"They wanted a basis to start an investigation to get me," said Galvan. "If
they already had information that I was dirty, they wouldn't need her to
come up with my name."

Court motions filed by Galvan say that he clashed with Bingley when the
officer worked with the Allied Area Narcotics Task Force based in Hondo.

That unit's director, Tony Hackebeil, said he disbanded the task force in
1997 because Bingley and other officers were "cutting corners" on
investigations.

Barton says she spoke to Cavazos, the district attorney, by phone more than
once about the task force targeting Galvan, but Cavazos denies any such
discussions occurred.

Unsavory Characters

Working as a snitch requires being around unsavory characters, drugs and
sometimes alcohol, all of which routinely are barred by judges under the
terms of probation.

But about 10 probationers served as confidential informants for the task
force last year with the approval of prosecutors, said Howard Hollimon, the
head of the local community supervision office.

"My probation department is very law-enforcement oriented," said Hollimon,
who couldn't rule out accounts of probationers being pressured into
undercover service.

He also recalled two instances in which the task force vetoed his staff's
efforts to revoke probation on repeat offenders and send them to prison
because the subjects were needed as informants.

"They're supposed to be rehabilitating, through in-patient treatments and
drug awareness classes," Galvan said. "If you send them back into the drug
world, they're certainly not going to be rehabilitated."

Ables, the district judge, said he was unaware of any probationers becoming
confidential informants. The topic has never been discussed with him, he said.

But, Ables added, "You might be able to catch a bin Laden by letting them
be with a terrorist."

Grand jurors could begin hearing testimony about the task force this month.

The scope of the inquiry won't necessarily be limited to complaints by
Barton, said Richard Mosty, a Kerrville lawyer whom Ables appointed as
special prosecutor April 15.

"We'll go where the evidence takes us," he said.