BOTCHED DRUG CASES ROCK DALLAS

DALLAS -- The cases unfolded, and unraveled, one by one: drug bust after
drug bust in which investigators later found little or no drugs in the
evidence that was seized.

The FBI is examining the role of Dallas police and prosecutors in about 70
drug cases, involving more than 40 defendants, dismissed in recent months
after lab tests revealed fake drugs or tiny amounts of the real thing mixed
with large amounts of gypsum.

Whether it's a case of corruption or a massive system failure remains to be
seen. But the botched cases have spilled over into the race for district
attorney and angered the newly elected mayor. Some victims have threatened
civil rights lawsuits and Hispanic advocacy groups are calling for the
resignations of the district attorney, city manager and police chief.

"It's the worst law enforcement scandal I've heard of in the Northern
District of Texas in the 20 years I've practiced here," said Paul Coggins,
a former U.S. attorney.

The scandal began unfolding last fall, when prosecutors notified Dallas
police of evidence tests showing little or no illegal drugs. But defense
attorneys say they had beseeched District Attorney Bill Hill to look into
the cases long before that.

Hill defends his office, saying his prosecutors were first to discover the
problem and send the evidence for lab tests. He said his staff found a
pattern in some of the cases in early November and within two weeks halted
all prosecutions involving two police officers and their informant, even
though some of those cases may have been valid.

The Police Department placed the two narcotics detectives on administrative
leave.

Police Chief Terrell Bolton has declined requests for interviews with the
Associated Press. The FBI also declined to give details, citing its
investigation.

Glenn White, president of the Dallas Police Association, defended his
suspended colleagues.

"They went out and did their job and they happened to have an informant
that is unreliable," White said. "The informant realized if he delivered
large amounts, he'd get more money."

Critics say police and county officials had several clues that the busts
weren't legitimate. They question why Hill's office had not ordered lab
tests before indicting defendants based on uncorroborated field tests by
the arresting officers.

"How did these field tests, if they were actually run, mistake gypsum for
cocaine?" Coggins asked.

White said most district attorneys and federal agents in Texas require lab
tests before indicting suspects in large drug busts. Field tests are
notoriously unreliable; something as innocuous as aspirin can test positive
as cocaine, he said.

"This is not a corruption case," White said. "It's a system failed."

Dallas County's policy had been to hold off on more conclusive lab tests
until trial. In some cases, defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges and
were jailed or deported. The new policy calls for lab tests before
indicting suspects.

Former Dallas County prosecutor Robert Montserrat blamed lack of
supervision in the Police Department and poor communication in the
overworked district attorney's office. Because the growing drug caseload is
spread among several prosecutors, a pattern of inconsistency is harder to
spot, he said.

"The cops are not watching each other," Montserrat said. "The DA's office
is not watching the cops."

Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry said his office has always
required a lab test before proceeding with an indictment.

Bob Baskett, the attorney for Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz, one of the
narcotics officers, said his client did not conduct the initial field tests
and didn't know the drugs were fake. He said drug dealers may have set up
the informant, who was paid up to $200,000 by police.

The informant, Jose Guadalupe Ruiz, 33, is jailed without bond for
returning to Texas after he was deported in February on old charges of
failing to appear at a 1999 hearing on a weapons violation.

Several Latino advocacy groups have demanded the resignations of Hill,
Bolton and City Manager Ted Benavides because many of the defendants were
Mexican nationals.

"We think justice has died in Dallas," said Alfredo Castaneda, president of
Mexicanos Unidos.