FORMER PRICHARD COPS EXPECTED TO PLEAD GUILTY TODAY

At Least Four Of Six Officers Charged In Corruption Case Reportedly Work
Out Deals With Prosecutors

At least four former Prichard police officers are set to plead guilty in
federal court in Mobile this morning to corruption charges levied against
them last year.

A lawyer for one of their former partners, meanwhile, said his client has
until 9 a.m. today to decide whether to join them in pleading guilty or to
again face racketeering allegations at trial. A lawyer for a sixth man
accused in the case declined to comment about her client's status.

Jurors in a trial for all six men deadlocked in October, forcing a mistrial
after three days of deliberations and two weeks of testimony.

Lawyers for the four slated to plea -- former Lt. James Stallworth Jr.,
former Sgt. John Stuckey and former detectives Derek Gillis and Nathan
McDuffie -- worked furiously to broker deals with prosecutors Thursday. The
lawyers dash ed between side rooms, courtrooms and hallways of the federal
courthouse on St. Joseph Street to find their clients and relay
prosecutors' proposed terms.

Several dozen southwest Alabama residents who were called as potential
jurors waited in a courtroom and a jury lounge for much of the morning
before Chief U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. sent them to lunch; he
discharged them at 1 p.m.

Some of the defendants took time to talk to their family members about the
possibility of a guilty plea. Shortly before noon, a woman who appeared to
be an older relative of McDuffie dabbed at the corners of her eyes as she
stood with him and his lawyer.

FBI agents arrested the six men -- the four scheduled to plead, as well as
former detectives Anthony Diaz and Frederick Pippins -- in August after an
18-month probe. A federal grand jury accused the men of repeatedly taking
cash from drug suspects in exchange for letting them go.

Authorities also accused Stallworth, the highest-ranking of the six, of
taking at least $60,000 in seized cash from the department's evidence
vault, which was in his office.

Stuckey, who also served on the Drug Enforcement Administration's local
task force, was accused of taking seized crack cocaine and smoking it with
prostitutes in exchange for sex. Prosecutors introduced evidence at the
previous trial that he tested positive for cocaine around the time his DEA
supervisors dismissed him, and shortly before he resigned from the Prichard
force.

If convicted at trial of the most serious allegations, the defendants would
face prison sentences ranging from slightly more than five years to not
quite 20 years. The deals reached this week reportedly could range from
home confinement to split sentences -- periods of home confinement
typically coupled with equal amounts of jail time -- to multiple-year
prison terms.

Lawyers on both sides of the case declined to comment Thursday, citing
strict instructions from Butler. They were still hammering out the
specifics of the plea agreements late Thursday.

Diaz and Pippins were rescheduled for trial late this month before Butler.
Prosecutors reportedly offered both men deals similar to those given the
other defendants. Pippins' lawyer, Willie Huntley, would not discuss
details of the proposed agreement but said he understood it would be good
until 9 a.m., when the others are scheduled to enter their pleas.

"My client said he didn't do anything wrong, didn't take any money, didn't
extort any money, didn't try to bribe anybody," Huntley said, explaining
Pippins' decision to once more risk conviction at trial. "All he did was
try to be a good police officer."

Huntley said he expects the defendants who plead guilty will testify
against his client. "That's going to be an integral part of any agreement
they reach with the government," he said.

Pippins would face a prison term ranging from about seven years to nine
years if a jury convicts him of the most serious counts, Huntley said.

All six were to have gone on trial Jan. 22 before District Judge Roger
Vinson, the ranking federal jurist in Pensacola. Vinson had agreed to come
to Mobile to try the case in order to lighten the burden on Butler, the
only full-time federal district judge in the Southern District of Alabama.
The trial likely would have taken at least two weeks.

Butler said a trial for just Diaz and Pippins likely would last only a few
days.