DRUG DEBACLE

Let's Get To The Bottom Of This Mess

Like a swamp that has no bottom, the sordid tale of the fake drug cases
just goes deeper and deeper.

Now Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton has put a pair of undercover
narcotics officers on leave and asked for help from the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency. Even that was controversial, since some observers say
that a more logical choice would be the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

One hopes that Chief Bolton's decision to not knock on that door has
nothing to do with his past difficulties with the Dallas FBI office. As we
try to get to the bottom of a scandal that already has damaged the
integrity of the criminal justice system in these parts, the last thing we
need to contend with are petty personality conflicts. Chief Bolton should
immediately pick up the phone and invite the FBI into the investigation.

He also might call upon the Texas Rangers. The idea of involving the
Rangers did not catch fire when it was proposed recently by Dallas mayoral
candidate Domingo Garcia. But it is a plausible suggestion that would
provide the state a neutral-party role in the clean-up.

Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill has grabbed a mop. He is
dismissing as many as 59 narcotics cases. He also should conduct an
in-house probe of whether his office should have, as critics claim,
suspended prosecutions of drug cases when red flags first went up back in
mid-September.

And of course, there has to be - at both the police force and the district
attorney's office - a major overhaul of the system for testing drugs to
make sure that the guilty are prosecuted and the innocent protected.

Some of those in need of protection here were undocumented immigrants.
Unable to speak English and unfamiliar with our legal system, they were
easy prey for those who would take advantage of them. We can leave the
immigration debate for another day, but it is hardly in our society's best
interest to have any group falsely accused of crimes.

And speaking of victims, despite the substantial amount of egg on
officials' faces, the real victims here are those individuals who unjustly
had their freedom taken away on bum raps in cases that should have never
seen the inside of a courtroom.