ATTEMPT TO KILL VALLEY PROSECUTOR FAILS

A high-profile Valley drug prosecutor narrowly escaped assassination
Tuesday night when a bullet fired through a window of her home wounded her
brother, instead.

The shooting took place shortly before midnight at the north Glendale home
of Billie Rosen, lead drug prosecutor for the state Attorney General's
Office, Glendale police said Wednesday.

At least one of four shots struck Richard Rosen, 40, who was seated at a
computer in a bedroom. Investigators believe that a silencer may have been
used to muffle the gunshots, which were fired through a screened back window.

Billie Rosen was at home at the time of the shooting, but the screen on the
window may have obscured the view as to who was at the computer, Glendale
police Detective Brian Wilkins said.

Citing security considerations, Wilkins declined to identify the hospital
where the brother is receiving care or to give the location of Billie
Rosen's north Glendale home. Authorities have taken undisclosed steps to
protect Rosen, he added.

"We are looking at this as an assassination attempt," he said. "Obviously,
we believe it may be connected to any number of high- profile cases she is
prosecuting."

Investigators will have no shortage of possible suspects. Rosen has
prosecuted hundreds of defendants in a long career in which she became
known for going after large drug rings.

One of her important upcoming cases, for example, involves a suspected gang
of drug smugglers in Yuma that, authorities say, has ties to the violent
Mexican crime lord Benjamin Felix Arellano.

The Yuma probe began in 1999 when U.S. customs agents seized 50 pounds of
marijuana coming through the San Luis port of entry.

Following a three-year investigation, the 50 defendants were indicted Jan.
9 by a state grand jury on fraud, racketeering, money laundering and drug
charges that involve marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Another of Rosen's recent cases involved members of the Mexican Mafia
prison gang. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, she worked for
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix.

Her favorite technique, court watchers say, is to level book-length
indictments against a wide cast of characters in hopes of winnowing out
eventual convictions of a few. Her cases have been known to last for years.

Larry Debus, a Phoenix defense attorney who will face Rosen in a pending
case, described her as an aggressive prosecutor who won't be intimidated by
an attempt on her life.

"She's known to prosecute a lot of high-profile drug cases with multiple
defendants and multiple counts," he said. "She's aggressive."

Investigators combing through her case files looking for suspects have a
huge chore in front of them, he added.

"If they look through the indictments of the past 12 months, there will be
500 people to contact," he said.

"Billie's tough. I can't see this deterring her."

Special Agent Jim Molesa of the Phoenix DEA office said he could not
confirm if federal agents were helping Glendale police with the investigation.

But he said: "We're shocked and appalled at this act of domestic terrorism.
This doesn't differ from what we see in Mexico and Colombia when
individuals attack law enforcement, judges and prosecutors."