DRUG CONVICT WILL PROBABLY BE RELEASED

Ties To Informant Trigger Action In 1st Case Involving Real Narcotics

A Dallas judge on Monday recommended that an appeals court give a new trial
to a man who pleaded guilty last year to a drug-delivery case based partly
on the word of a questionable Dallas police confidential informant.

State District Judge Mark Nancarrow's order, which will probably lead to
the prisoner's release, is significant because it is believed to be the
first time since the drug scandal surfaced that a judge has ruled on a case
involving a defendant caught with real drugs who was serving prison time.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys had requested a new trial for Manuel
Rodriguez Garcia, 28, who has no prior criminal record.

Background Coverage of the ongoing investigation from The Dallas Morning
News and WFAA.

"This is the first one who actually got a prison term to have a
recommendation to the Court of Criminal Appeals" for a new trial, said
Andrew Chatham, Mr. Garcia's appellate attorney. Judge Nancarrow's order
noted that "the state has advised this court that, if this writ is granted,
the state plans to dismiss" Mr. Garcia's case.

Prosecutors were unavailable for comment Monday evening.

The Dallas County district attorney's office previously identified 80
pending and adjudicated cases to dismiss against 53 defendants. As of last
month, 63 pending cases against 43 defendants had been officially dismissed
as part of the investigation into cases involving Dallas police Senior Cpl.
Mark Delapaz, Officer Eddie Herrera and at least four of their confidential
informants.

The FBI began investigating the officers' so-called fake-drug cases in
January after lab tests on a series of major drug busts showed the evidence
to be finely ground Sheetrock or only trace amounts of illicit substances.
About 28 of the previously dismissed cases involved fake drugs; the rest
were tainted - and thus thrown out - because of credibility problems
related to the officers' or the informants' involvement, officials have said.

On Monday, Judge Nancarrow adopted prosecutors' reasoning in recommending a
new trial for Mr. Garcia - that too many questions had been raised about
the credibility of informant Enrique Martinez Alonso for the conviction to
stand.

Defense attorney Michael Hawk said Mr. Garcia's case was also significant
because it marked the last time that Mr. Alonso made a case against another
suspect to "work off" his own drug charges.

"This is the case that got his case dismissed," Mr. Hawk said.

After Mr. Garcia's case, Mr. Alonso joined the Dallas police payroll,
becoming one of the department's most highly paid confidential informants.

Defense attorneys say the case now goes to the state's highest criminal
court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. They expect a new
trial to be granted and that Mr. Garcia will spend at least three more
weeks behind bars. Mr. Hawk broke the news Monday to his client, who
recently was moved from a prison unit to the Dallas County Jail.

"He cried when I told him," Mr. Hawk said. "And when I talked to his family
members, they said he had truly learned his lesson and was ready to get on
with his life."

Mr. Hawk, who represented Mr. Garcia initially, said lab tests showed that
Mr. Garcia was caught in July 2000 with real drugs. According to court
records, Cpl. Delapaz and Mr. Alonso had arranged for the informant to buy
a half a kilogram of cocaine, or about 1.1 pounds, and 1 pound of
methamphetamine from Mr. Garcia and co-defendant Guadalupe Cruz Ramirez,
whose pending cases were dismissed in January by prosecutors. Mr. Ramirez,
40, also had no prior record.

Court records say that Mr. Alonso got into a van driven by Mr. Ramirez and
later told officers that both suspects opened a cooler to show him it
contained drugs. The men were arrested shortly thereafter.

Mr. Garcia had been in prison nearly nine months before the fake-drug cases
became publicly known. Mr. Hawk said prosecutors notified him they were
having Mr. Garcia moved back to Dallas County. Meanwhile, Mr. Chatham had
already filed Mr. Garcia's appeal, citing concerns about the fake-drug
cases and the involvement of the officers and Mr. Alonso.