2 JEFFERSON NARCOTICS DETECTIVES INVESTIGATED

Pair Suspected Of Tampering With Evidence, Fabricating Information,
Officials Say

Two Jefferson County police narcotics detectives are under criminal
investigation, suspected of tampering with evidence and fabricating
information to pad their paychecks, authorities said yesterday.

The allegations potentially jeopardize hundreds of cases the two detectives
worked on, authorities said.

Mark A. Watson and Christie D. Richardson, partners for 3 1/2 years, are on
emergency suspension with pay, county Police Chief William Carcara said.
Neither detective has been criminally charged.

Watson and Richardson -- both assigned to the Louisville-Jefferson County
Metro Narcotics Unit -- are suspected of fabricating information to obtain
search warrants, tampering with drug evidence, making up defendants and
fabricating court records, taking money meant to pay off informants and
collecting unwarranted overtime and court pay, Carcara said.

"These are the things you read about in cheap, dimestore novels," said Alex
Dathorne, chief narcotics prosecutor of the commonwealth's attorney's office.

Authorities say they don't know how much money the two detectives might
have taken or how many cases might be jeopardized.

"The single biggest threat in this case is the effect that it has on the
judicial system," Dathorne said. "We want to make sure that no innocent
people are affected by any misconduct."

Mark Miller, whose firm is representing both detectives, said yesterday
that he advised his clients not to comment on the investigation. Watson has
been on the force for 9 1/2 years, 6 1/2 in the narcotics unit. Richardson
has been with the department for 7 1/2 years, 3 1/2 as a narcotics detective.

A third county member of Metro Narcotics was suspended Friday in an
unrelated case, Carcara said. Sgt. Kenny Bell, who heads the division that
tracks cases in which prescription drugs are obtained illegally, also was
placed on emergency suspension, Carcara said.

Department officials, citing state law, said they could not discuss Bell's
suspension because of an internal investigation.

Carcara described the investigation of Watson, 38, and Richardson, 35, as
an onion -- "once we peeled the first layer we found more problems. . . .
We ended up with a fullblown corruption case."

The investigation indicates that the detectives were "manufacturing
defendants," forging signatures and turning in documents to supervisors,
including fake arrest slips, court papers and property room slips, Carcara
said. They also kept payments that were supposed to go to informants, he said.

"It was an elaborate scheme, and it took two people to pull it off because
the system we have requires two signatures to pay an informant," Carcara said.

A log sheet for payments to informants requires the signatures of the
informant, the officer who is making the payment, and the officer who
witnessed the transaction, Carcara said.

The investigations began last week when Watson's supervisors started
looking into court-payment discrepancies, Carcara said.

Numerous cases involving Watson have been dismissed because he never
appeared for court, Carcara said. Authorities compared those records
against the court payment Watson received and found discrepancies, Carcara
said.

Court and overtime pay is about $40 an hour.

The court-payment irregularities prompted the detectives' supervisors to
spot-check 500 narcotics cases from 2001. They found irregularities in
cases involving Watson and Richardson, Carcara said.

The department notified the commonwealth's attorney and the FBI once it
suspected corruption, Carcara said.

"What we're concerned about first of all is the community perception of
this problem," Carcara said.

Although the detectives were suspended last week, Carcara said he could not
speak publicly about the case until yesterday because it was an internal
investigation.

Skip Daleure, a lawyer for Kevin M. Rupe, who was arrested in June by
Watson and Richardson and is charged with cocaine trafficking and drug
paraphernalia possession, said he didn't know whether the investigation
will affect his client's case.

"If these things prove to be true, then the integrity of every case that
they've worked on is now in doubt," Daleure said.

Dathorne said prosecutors are compiling cases in which Watson and
Richardson were the lead detectives or worked together and are forwarding
them to the Metro Narcotics Unit. The cases will go back as far as
necessary to ensure the integrity of the judicial system, he said.

David Beyer, a spokesman and supervisory special agent with the Kentucky
FBI, said the agency is conducting an independent investigation to
determine whether the officers violated federal statutes.

That includes allegations that the officers falsely put in for overtime
paid by the federal government for narcotics investigations, Beyer said.
The FBI also will look into whether individuals' civil rights were violated.