DA DROPS 7 MORE DALLAS CASES

Dismissals of narcotics charges total 74, go back 5 years

The district attorney's office dismissed seven more pending Dallas police
narcotics cases Friday, going back five years to a case linked to one of
two suspended undercover officers.

Friday's dismissals bring to 74 the number of pending and adjudicated cases
that prosecutors are working to dismiss against 47 defendants. Of those,
court papers have been filed and dismissals have been granted in recent
weeks in 58 cases against 39 defendants.

"In the seven cases today, the basis of the dismissal in the interest of
justice ... [was] the crucial role of two Dallas police narcotics officers
or either of them," said Steve Tokoly, who oversees felony prosecutions for
the Dallas County district attorney's office.

Prosecutors tossed out two felony drug-delivery cases Thursday against two
people after laboratory tests showed that the seized substances - which
field-tested positive as methamphetamine - contained no illicit drugs.

Mr. Tokoly said that he didn't have lab reports in several of the seven
dismissed cases Friday but that the officers' involvement made the lab
tests irrelevant.

The string of dismissals related to the questionable cases continued to
grow a day after prosecutors said they had expanded their inquiry to
include a review of more officers' conduct.

According to police reports and court records in more than 50 of the
dismissed cases, as many as eight narcotics officers in addition to Senior
Cpl. Mark Delapaz and Officer Eddie Herrera participated in arrests of the
targeted defendants. Prosecutors have declined to identify the officers or
say how many of them may be scrutinized.

Prosecutors also acknowledged Thursday for the first time that they have
been scrutinizing the actions of four confidential informants used by Cpl.
Delapaz and Officer Herrera, who are on administrative leave. No other
officers have been placed on suspension or given modified duty, police have
said.

One of Friday's dismissals was for a 1997 arrest in which Officer Herrera
and another undercover narcotics officer executed a search warrant and
seized between 4 grams and 200 grams of cocaine.

Defense attorney Bill Stovall, whose client was charged in that case with
three other people, said he had not asked for a dismissal.

"I'm honestly shocked," Mr. Stovall said. "But I'm pleased the district
attorney is trying to remedy something that's gone terribly wrong."

Mr. Stovall said his client was deported after posting bond after his
October 1997 arrest. The man was arrested in December on a fugitive warrant
when he crossed from Mexico into the United States while Christmas shopping
for his daughter.

Mr. Stovall said he did not know whether his client had been released from
Lew Sterrett Justice Center or whether immigration officials had asked
jailers to detain the man.

The fact that the 5-year-old case was dismissed without argument by
prosecutors shows that the officers' credibility has suffered, the lawyer said.

"There's no question that good cases with real drugs are going to be thrown
out now," Mr. Stovall said.

"The credibility of the officers is going to come into question over and
over again, so the DA's got to do the proper thing. And that's to dismiss
the cases."

More dismissals are expected. Although the Dallas Police Department refused
to release arrest reports for the seven dismissals, interviews and court
records show that two defendants have co-defendants.

Those two defendants were arrested with four other people, whose cases are
pending or who are serving sentences.

Mr. Tokoly said his office was reviewing the adjudicated cases of those
people and others.

Defense attorney Cynthia Barbare, credited with being among the first
lawyers to spot the series of problematic cases, said the growing list of
dismissals warns of looming trouble for the Police Department.

"I think it's a sign that there's a serious problem with these narcotics
officers involved in these cases and the informants and that they've got to
be investigated," she said.

"As far as credibility is concerned, I don't see how you can find any
credibility in these cases. The main focus has been these officers on
administrative leave ... but there are names that appear throughout these
warrants that need to be looked at."

The review, which on Jan. 18 grew to include the FBI, began after defense
attorneys and prosecutors identified Dallas Police Department narcotics
cases involving fake or no drugs last year.

Before the inquiry encompassed a review of other officers' conduct,
prosecutors were identifying cases to dismiss based on the two suspended
officers or their paid informants.

Prosecutors are conducting a review of pending and disposed cases involving
Cpl. Delapaz and Officer Herrera. They say they will move to dismiss
additional cases if either the officers' or their informants' testimony was
crucial.

While either one or both of the suspended officers played roles in the
cases that were dismissed Friday, some cases involved Dallas police
officers who had not previously been linked to the cases under scrutiny.

Prosecutors dismissed an October 2000 charge against one of Ms. Barbare's
clients. In that case, Cpl. Delapaz, Officer Herrera and the same
undercover narcotics officer from the 1997 case were working undercover and
already had a search warrant for the suspect's car, according to court records.

The officers reported that they seized 114 grams of cocaine from the car,
along with $1,387 in cash.