FAKE-DRUG CASES KEY IN DA RACE

Warning Signs Ignored, 5 Say; Incumbent Defends Actions

Bogus drugs. Dubious busts. Tainted prosecutions.

Scores of problem drug cases, while stinging Dallas County's criminal
justice system, are putting an unusually sharp edge on the race for
district attorney.

But this year three Republicans are taking on a well-funded first-term
incumbent in the party's March 12 primary. Two Democratic candidates
want the job as well. And the challengers from both parties are honing
in on more than District Attorney Bill Hill's handling of drug
prosecutions that have borne some messy fruit.

The FBI is examining the role of Dallas police and local prosecutors
in 76 drug cases, involving 47 people, dismissed in recent months by
the district attorney's office.

In some cases, white powder was used as evidence to jail and prosecute
possibly innocent people. Undercover police officers reported that the
powder tested positive for illegal drugs at the time of arrests.

But laboratory analysis, sometimes months after suspects had been
detained, found the evidence to be mostly gypsum, an ingredient in
Sheetrock.

Other cases, some involving drugs and previously convicted drug
dealers, were dismissed because of ties to two undercover officers and
their informants in the faulty busts.

Mr. Hill defends his handling of a "complicated puzzle" and says he
"erred on the side of defendants" in dropping cases, some "where we
feel the guys were guilty." He says he is sorry if people were wrongly
jailed but "isn't sure how many were totally innocent."

He says he asked the FBI to investigate to "restore public trust" in
the county's criminal justice system and says his office is assisting
in a review of cases dating to 1997. "We've never had anything to hide."

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

But his election opponents say Mr. Hill missed or ignored warning
signs about a problem he could have contained months ago.

By requiring corroborating lab results before seeking indictments, "he
could have stopped this in its tracks," says David Finn, a Republican
candidate. "The DA should be held accountable."

Mr. Hill and Mr. Finn are sharing the Republican ballot with defense
attorneys Deandra Grant and Brian O'Shea. Democrats will choose
between defense attorneys Peter Lesser and Craig Watkins for their
nominee in the November general election.

Mr. Hill, a former lawyer and prosecutor, presents himself as an
innovative leader and aggressive crime fighter.

He comes armed with numbers, saying the overall conviction rate,
including guilty pleas, has increased during his three-plus years in
office. He talks about efficiency, saying better screening of cases
before prosecution has reduced dismissals. An in-house study, he says,
shows his 210 attorneys handle about twice as many cases as those in
similar-size prosecutors' offices nationally.

He touts his Lawyers on Loan program that uses local lawyers as
misdemeanor prosecutors, helping ease dockets at no cost to taxpayers.
He talks about adding 25 jobs and upgrading an aging computer system.

"I feel good about the way the organization is operating," he
says.

Mr. Hill's challengers are direct, sometimes vehement and often
concurring in their criticisms.

They say he is "out of touch" from the daily courthouse grind. Some
say his beginning prosecutors aren't adequately trained, others say
his office takes too many flimsy cases to trial instead of seeking
plea bargains and loses too many misdemeanor jury verdicts.

"Dallas County citizens deserve better than a mediocre district
attorney," Mr. O'Shea says.

He and other candidates talk about bringing more energy and efficiency
to the department, about letting women prosecute capital crimes, and
about new programs to address the seeds of crime.

As for the fake-drug cases, they blame Mr. Hill and his staff for
contributing to the problem.

Ms. Grant, echoing other candidates, says the district attorney's
office should have begun requiring lab tests at least in September,
when such analysis revealed two "cocaine" seizures, totaling about 37
pounds of powder, were mostly gypsum.

"Either he didn't know what was going on, which is bad enough," says
Mr. Lesser, "or he knew about it and did nothing."

Mr. Hill, 59, says he saw no red flags in September. "When we see
we've got one case of no dope, so what?"

In October, Dallas Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz and Officer Eddie Herrera
filed 10 cases with the help of a paid informant. At least six of the
cases involved little or no drugs, and all have been dismissed. The
officers, who have been linked to most of the 76 dismissals, were put
on paid leave last month.

Dallas County prosecutors have long used the results of drug field
tests to seek indictments. Laboratory tests were conducted if a case
was going to trial or if requested by a defense attorney. That
procedure, Mr. Hill says, "has worked well until now."

The district attorney says his staff established a "pattern" in some
problem drug cases by early November, and on Nov. 12 halted
prosecutions involving the two police officers and their informant.

Beginning Nov. 20, he says, lab tests were required of all seizures
weighing more than a kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). The directive was
extended to all drug cases almost two months later, days after
prosecutors announced 59 problem cases were being dismissed.

Why the delay? "We had to get the facts," Mr. Hill
says.

Mr. Finn, 38, says he didn't know about the troubled prosecutions when
he decided to run for district attorney.

A former state and federal prosecutor, he resigned Jan. 1 after three
years as a Dallas County criminal court judge handling domestic
violence cases. If endorsements and campaign dollars add up to votes,
he is the leading challenger.

The Dallas Police Patrolman's Union and local chapter of the National
Latino Peace Officers Association have endorsed Mr. Finn. The Dallas
Police Association is backing Mr. Hill. Mr. Finn has reported campaign
contributions of $27,675, exceeding other challengers, but trailing
Mr. Hill's $232,960.

Like the incumbent, Mr. Finn presents himself as a "crime fighter" and
innovator. As a judge, he made the timely payment of child support a
condition of probation, sat in on defendants' court-ordered
counseling, and established a court docket to help mentally ill
offenders. He talks of expanding those programs if elected.

Almost 75 percent of 115 respondents approved of his judicial work in
a Dallas Bar Association poll last May. But Mr. Finn gives the
district attorney's office low marks for courtroom work.

The jury trial conviction rate in misdemeanor courts (58 percent in
2000) is too low, he says. Prosecutors lost 73 of 136 jury trials in
his court last year. And too often, he says, they didn't present basic
information such as 911 tapes or the full record of a defendant's
violent past.

Mr. Hill says about 90 percent of misdemeanor defendants plead guilty
and others typically seek a jury trial because the evidence against
them is marginal, making the cases more difficult to prosecute.
Domestic violence cases are particularly challenging, he has said,
because complainants often won't testify.

In a letter announcing her candidacy last May, Ms. Grant, 33, raised
general concerns about fake-drug cases. She also called for better
training of new hires and for more women in leadership roles,
particularly leading death penalty cases.

"It's the learn-by-losing method," she says of department training.
For female prosecutors in capital murder trials, "it's like helping go
get coffee."

Mr. O'Shea, 38, says he decided to run months before the problem drug
cases surfaced because "Bill Hill is asleep at the switch" and the
office is "wasting resources."

Too many marginal cases are being put to sometimes costly trials, he
says. And the Lawyers on Loan program is giving away valuable training
opportunities to private law firms, he says.

Mr. O'Shea says he would reduce department management, increase the
number of front-line prosecutors and give them more courtroom discretion.

Mr. Lesser agrees. The district attorney's office is "all about
numbers, not people," said the longtime Dallas defense attorney.

Trial decisions too often are made outside the courtroom, he said, and
prosecutors typically are too inflexible in disposing of cases. For
example, "they have this schedule of fines and whether someone can pay
is irrelevant."

The other Democratic candidate, Mr. Watkins, could not be reached for
comment.

All this criticism, Mr. Hill says, is "just not true."

"I've freed their hands," he says of his prosecutors. He has 47 women
in supervisory jobs, he said, an increase of 20 since taking office.
Training now includes in-house clinics and performance
evaluations.

Office efficiency? "We can't get much more efficient," Mr. Hill says.
Out of touch? "I know every one of my lawyers, what they do, where
they are."

His opponents? "I wish they would come up here and spend a week with
me.

"It's amazing they can say these things."