WAITING FOR HIS DAY IN COURT SINCE '98

Justice: Drug Trial Of Mexican Mafia Suspect Has Been Delayed Time And
Again. He Fired His First Four Attorneys.

As he sits in Orange County Jail awaiting trial on charges of
transporting cocaine, it is apparent that Art Romo is a long way from
his days as the broker of a peace agreement among gangs.

Romo and two other men have been locked up since March 1998. Attorneys
in the case say the three will finally be tried next
month--maybe.

It is the second time Romo has found himself on the wrong side of the
law since he organized the United Gang Council of Orange County and
brokered a much-publicized gang peace treaty in 1992. The first time
earned him a three-year sentence for laundering $60,000 for a
Colombian drug cartel. This time, Romo, 39, is facing 30 years or more
in prison if he is convicted of transporting more than 200 kilos of
cocaine, allegedly for the Colombians again. Although he is being
tried with co-defendants Fernando Melendrez and David R. Gomez,
authorities believe that Romo, a Santa Ana resident who owned a
silk-screening business, is the ringleader and a local leader of the
Mexican Mafia prison gang, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff
Ferguson. Romo's bail is set at $2 million.

Ferguson, who has been putting together the prosecution's case for
almost four years with another prosecutor, said he does not know of
another drug case in which defendants have been held this long before
going to trial.

Prosecutors said they have strong circumstantial evidence against
Romo; his lawyers contend that he will be freed after a jury hears the
facts.

The complexity of the case and the multiple defendants who have filed
separate legal motions have contributed to delays. One defendant's
attorney died, leading to more delays while his replacement
familiarized himself with the case.

But Romo has also stretched out the inevitable trial date by hiring
and firing defense attorneys. Each new attorney begins a new
investigation and needs time to learn the facts of the case.

Justin Brooks, head of the Institute of Criminal Defense Advocacy at
California Western School of Law in San Diego, said state law allows
Romo to change attorneys as long as the trial judge permits it.

"If the judge is tolerant and thinks the issues raised by the
defendant are legitimate, the trial can be delayed for years while he
changes attorneys," Brooks said. "California has very strict rules on
a defendant's right to choose his own counsel. Courts are afraid of
running the risk of having a case reversed because a guy wasn't
allowed to choose his own counsel."

The stakes are high for each man. Gomez, like Romo, is facing 30 years
or more in prison if convicted, Ferguson said. Melendrez would earn a
third strike and life in prison, he said.

Suspicions about Romo's alleged ties with the Mexican Mafia have
lingered since he engineered the 1992 peace treaty in Santa Ana. At
the time, skeptical police officials were quoted as saying the accord
was dictated by the Mexican Mafia because its drug sale profits were
slipping while street gang members, who moved the narcotics, were busy
shooting each other.

Friends and relatives have formed an ad hoc defense committee since
Romo's arrest. From his jail cell, Romo sends out written messages
advocating the "Barrio Peace Initiative" and an end to gang violence.
"What this boils down to is that I'm locked up and the violence is
continuing on the streets. Nobody's out there working to stop the
drive-by shootings," Romo said in an interview.

He also recently issued a handwritten, 12-page statement complaining
that his attorneys "have all tried to help the government railroad me
in some kinda way." He is now on his fifth attorney, having fired the
others.

"I understand that some of these attorneys like to play golf with the
district attorneys on weekends, but please don't tell me that I'm
picking all the losers," Romo wrote.

In October, he retained well-known criminal defense attorney Gary
Pohlson. In an interview from jail last week, Romo proclaimed his
innocence and said that he was happy with Pohlson "right now."

Pohlson said he was disappointed by Romo's "unfortunate comments"
about his previous attorneys. "I'm doing an aggressive defense of my
client," Pohlson said. "This includes hiring another attorney who is
researching the case and filing motions on his behalf to show his
rights were violated." The prosecution's case starts with 276 kilos of
cocaine found in vehicles driven by Melendrez and Gomez. After that
discovery, court records state, a Santa Ana police dog alerted
officers to the presence of drugs on the exterior of a rear door in
Romo's SUV. Narcotics were never found in Romo's vehicle, but records
show that 19 bottles of inositol were recovered. Inositol is used to
dilute cocaine to increase its volume and maximize profits.

In the jailhouse interview, Romo denied any ties to the cocaine
seizure, but he refused to discuss the inositol found in his vehicle.
He and the others are accused of transporting and selling cocaine as
members of a street gang. But the reality, law enforcement sources
say, is that the three ended up as discarded remnants of a federal
investigation that had bigger targets.

In 1998, a task force of federal and local narcotics officers in Los
Angeles was investigating a Southern California drug ring, prosecutor
Ferguson said. During the surveillance of ring members, agents tripped
across Romo, Melendrez and Gomez.

On March 8, 1998, task force members had Gomez's Fountain Valley house
under surveillance, having been led there by suspects they were
watching in Riverside County.

Court records show that Melendrez and Romo stopped at the home that
day. Romo said he was simply visiting Gomez. Fountain Valley officers
were drafted to assist the task force and stopped Melendrez's and
Gomez's vehicles and found the cocaine inside, records show. Romo was
stopped later in the day by Santa Ana officers.

Records show that Los Angeles narcotics agents requested that local
police find a reason to do traffic stops of the suspects' vehicles.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Martinez said in an
affidavit that he "requested uniformed police officers from Fountain
Valley conduct a traffic stop" of Gomez's vehicle. The same request
was made of Santa Ana police to stop Romo's SUV.

Al Stokke, Melendrez's attorney, did not return telephone calls to his
office. Gomez's attorney, Shirley MacDonald, declined to comment. But
attorney Richard Schwartzberg, who is assisting Pohlson and wrote a
legal motion on Romo's behalf, said that the police stop of Romo was
done without probable cause and was unconstitutional.

Ferguson acknowledged that the evidence against Romo is
circumstantial. "Circumstantial evidence carries the same weight as
direct evidence if the jurors are satisfied the circumstances are
true. It's a strong case," he said.