D.A. TO REVIEW BUSTS OF BAD COPS

Schenectady -- Drug cases handled by 2 disgraced officers under scrutiny;
could affect scores of convictions

The county's top prosecutor plans to order a sweeping review of some 2,000
felony drug cases his office has prosecuted over the last six years, based
on admissions from two police officers that they doled out drugs to informants.

"This is something we have to do, no matter how time consuming or
laborious, so this office will continue to have the confidence of the
public," Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said. "If we
lose that, we lose everything."

The unprecedented review comes in the wake of guilty pleas by two former
city patrol cops, Richard Barnett and Michael Siler, on corruption charges.
The cases have raised a host of concerns that could undermine scores of
convictions, including allegations of cops engaging in questionable arrest
tactics. There are also concerns that a number of other officers may have
engaged in similar practices, according to court documents.

Federal prosecutors believe that most of the cases Siler and Barnett worked
on were legitimate. Carney said he thinks most of those cases will hold up
under his review.

The FBI's probe into corruption on the police force has been ongoing for
nearly two years, but it was only this week that details emerged as to how
a group of rogue patrol cops, praised for the high number of arrests they
made, routinely broke the law when dealing with informants.

On Monday, Siler pleaded guilty to four of eight felony crimes, admitting
that he regularly gave crack cocaine to addicts in Hamilton Hill as a
reward for information. Siler, the second city cop to be convicted in the
FBI's ongoing criminal probe, has indicated that other officers have also
given drugs to informants. Siler has agreed to cooperate with federal
officials, which is likely to lead to further indictments in the department.

Details about the arrests that Siler, Barnett, and others made came to
light Thursday, after U.S. District Judge David Hurd unsealed hundreds of
court papers tied to Siler's case. The papers were unsealed at the request
of the Times Union and the Daily Gazette.

Six women with a history of drug use were expected to testify against
Siler, describing for the jury how they set up other addicts and low- level
dealers in exchange for crack.

Several incidents described in court papers paint a troubling picture of
cops selectively enforcing the law: busting some addicts and trampling on
their rights while allowing others -- their informants -- to remain unscathed.

"About two months ago at the Twins Motel, Siler asked Darla and me if we
had a (crack) stem on us," one of Siler's informants, Seba Richards, told
Schenectady investigators in August 1999. "Darla, I think her last name is
Weary, gave him one. He then went into Room 18 and arrested Debbie for
having the stem, which is a crack pipe."

Convictions based on those types of arrests are vulnerable to being
overturned because the officers could be accused of perjury, fabricating
evidence or making a false arrest.

Sources have described scenarios in which an informant would call a cop to
tell them who was in the room smoking crack. The cop would run their names
through a computer, find out if there was a warrant for their arrest, and
then arrive at the house to make a bust.

In other cases, a cop would raid a suspected drug house and secure an
informant's permission to search the house after the arrests had been made.
Defense lawyers could potentially challenge those arrests on grounds that
police did not have reason to believe a crime was taking place when they
made the raid.

To date, no one has come forward to ask that their case be reopened.

But even if the accused were guilty but the cops cut corners to secure
convictions, prosecutors could have a big problem. Defense attorneys can
request that cases be reopened and convictions dismissed if they suspect
police misconduct.

At least one defense lawyer, Terence Kindlon, says he was approached this
week by a man who served time on a drug charge, asking that his case be
reopened because the arresting officers were Siler and Barnett.

Carney says the review of cases will be tough because the office does not
have a case-tracking system. For instance, prosecutors will likely have to
go through each drug case, looking for individual officers' names. Record
keeping is spotty for misdemeanor cases.

Help from Barnett and Siler may make Carney's work easier. Federal
prosecutors have told Carney that cooperation agreements Siler and Barnett
have signed can be extended to cooperation with his office, Carney said. He
said he has discussed some specific cases of concern with Assistant U.S.
Attorney John Katko, the lawyer prosecuting the Schenectady police
corruption cases, but he refused to discuss details.

If Carney finds evidence that cops lied to the grand jury or filed false
affidavits pertaining to arrests, he says he may bring state perjury
charges against the officers in question.

Carney's decision to confront the problems head-on has been well- received.

"I think there are a lot of DA's who would say, 'Oh my God, all my
statistics are down the drain,' " said David Bayley, a professor at
UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice. "If he's willing to do that, that's
wonderful. It indicates he cares about justice."

The problems facing prosecutors are not limited to concerns about tainted
evidence. The allegations surrounding Schenectady's police officers have
made juries less willing to trust cops' testimony in court.

Carney has said earlier that the allegations have resulted in several
acquittals. If an officer's version of events is up against an accused
criminal's, jurors have recently been siding with the accused, unless there
is additional evidence.

"The credibility of the Police Department has been totally undermined,"
said Steven Kouray, a Schenectady defense lawyer.

In some ways, the problems in Schenectady are a product of the realities
underlying the war on drugs. Drug dealers are reluctant to do business with
people they don't know. As a result, police are forced to rely on
confidential informants, those shadowy figures with ties to the criminal
world they are reporting on.

Police have to be ever vigilant of the motives informants may have for
helping the police, such as informants using the police to wipe out a rival
drug dealer or to get themselves out of trouble with the law.

It can be a world where the temptation to cut corners -- for instance
giving drugs instead of cash to informants as payment -- is great. Some
people question whether the police should even be involved.

"Police officers have been given an almost impossible job to do, which is
to solve a public health problem, through criminal law," said Kindlon, the
defense lawyer. "It's like trying to cure cancer by arresting people."