TWO SAN ANTONIO OFFICERS QUIT FOLLOWING CORRUPTION PROBE

Two Others Suspended Without Pay

SAN ANTONIO ­ Two San Antonio police officers quit their jobs and two
others were suspended without pay Wednesday following their arrests along
with five police officers on federal drug charges.

Police Chief Al Phillippus was working Wednesday to get rid of four others,
including two who have been denied bond, according to the San Antonio
Express-News' Thursday editions.

The resignations and suspensions came just hours before an undercover FBI
videotape apparently showing police officers laughing and flashing their
and sharing cash from drug deals was aired on local television news stations.

The FBI says the video shows San Antonio police officers protecting loads
of fake cocaine being sold by a midlevel drug dealer who really was an FBI
agent.

Phillipus declined to discuss the suspensions, but publicly condemned the
actions the federal authorities have attributed to accused officers.

The FBI last Thursday arrested San Antonio police officers Sgt. Conrad
Fragozo Jr., Patrick Bowron, Peter Saenz, Arthur Gutierrez Jr., Lawrence
Bustos, Manuel Cedillo Jr., Alfred Valdes, and David Anthony Morales.

Gutierrez and Saenz resigned. Bustos and Cedillo were suspended.

Valdes is also expected to be suspended, the newspaper said.

Also charged in the FBI's sting were Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Richard
Rowlett Buchanan; former Bexar County Reserve Deputy Constable Gilbert
Andrade Jr.; and civilians Edward Fragozo, the uncle of Fragozo, and Albert
Mata.

"They were very somber," Philippus said after meeting with Bustos and
Cedillo. "Some come in here with their young wives, and you can see it in
their faces that their family are the true victims here."

The chief said he was consulting with the department's legal office to
determine how to serve the same kinds of suspensions on the other three
officers.

More than 3,000 state criminal cases ranging from drunken driving to
narcotics trafficking could be in jeopardy because they involve at least
one of eight law enforcement officers.

The cases date from 1998, when the first allegations against the officers
are said to have occurred, Bexar county officials said Tuesday.

After a five-hour hearing for four officers on Monday, a judge set bond for
each of the defendants at $100,000.

Top prosecutors said it could take weeks to sort through the files, some of
which involve the accused officers.

"We're talking about more than just the credibility of their (officers')
testimony," Michael Bernard, Bexar County first assistant district
attorney, told the San Antonio Express-News in Wednesday's editions. "As a
practical matter, the officers simply aren't available to testify."

Federal prosecutors say four of the officers ­ Fragozo Jr., Bowron, Cedillo
and Bustos ­ admitted to drug crimes shortly after they were arrested last
Thursday.

In detention hearings Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate John Primomo denied bond for
the two San Antonio officers, Fragozo Jr. and Bowron, who are accused of
leading the group.

Prosecutors filed a transcript of comments they attribute to Morales in
preparation for the detention hearings. Morales is accused of offering, on
duty and in uniform, to guard cocaine shipments in a gated community around
the clock and asked for an automatic weapon so he could kill intruders at
"close quarters."

Morales' chance to argue for release is scheduled later this week.

In court documents that detail the accusations against six police officers
and the uncle of one, prosecutors allege that the men were paid from $1,500
to $6,500 each time they helped protect or escort what they thought was
cocaine. Different combinations of officers participated in at least nine
deals throughout the year 2000, authorities said.

Bernard declined to discuss individual cases among the 3,000 until his
office has determined how they will be settled, but he added that none of
those reviewed so far involve homicide or other violent felonies.

He said he didn't expect to see those kinds of cases emerge given that most
of the accused officers worked patrol.

"Patrol officers are going to make DWI arrests. They're not going to be the
lead officers in a homicide or a sexual assault or a major fraud case,"
Bernard said. "I think we're looking at a lot of lower-level drug cases."

But there are more than 50 felony cases ­ most of them drug-related ­
involving the officers that the district attorney's office has accepted for
prosecution.

Most were handled by Buchanan, 44, a Bexar County deputy sheriff who worked
as an evidence technician.

Buchanan is the sole defendant in the FBI's sting facing only a theft
charge. No drug charges have been filed against him.

Bernard said five or six section chiefs within the district attorney's
office will review the 3,000 cases.

"We haven't mapped it all out yet," Bernard said. "It's a huge amount of work."