CLYNE: MOVE TO DROP DRUG CASE A MISTAKE

Albany-- Da Questions Assistant's Decision To Throw Out Crack Charge
Against Surgeon

District Attorney Paul Clyne said Thursday that drug charges against a
prominent surgeon arrested at a notorious drug corner should not have been
so quickly dropped by one of his prosecutors.

"Very simply, we don't dismiss cases. Period," Clyne said.

Dr. Darroch Moores, a respected thoracic surgeon, was charged with
possession of crack cocaine Sunday evening after police said he went
through a red light at Lark Street and Livingston Avenue at about 6 p.m.

Officer Brian Kisling said he found two pieces of crack cocaine on the
ground outside the car and a small piece inside an ashtray in the 1999 Jeep
Grand Cherokee's center console, according to a police report.

The following morning the surgeon came to City Court accompanied by his
attorney, Thomas Neidl, and conferred with a prosecutor before his
scheduled arraignment, asking that the drug charge be dropped. Assistant
District Attorney Francisco Calderon agreed. The surgeon paid a $105 fine
plus surcharge for running the red light.

Moores told police Sunday night that a teenager had jumped into the rear
seat of his car at the red light to try to sell him drugs as he was driving
home from Albany Medical Center. Moores told the officers after he was
arrested that he panicked, hit the gas and ran a red light, according to
Detective James Miller, a police spokesman.

The doctor told police that the young man who jumped into his car dropped
the drugs before he ran away, Miller said. Police did not run after the man
who jumped from the Jeep when the officers arrived.

The doctor was arrested and he was brought to headquarters. He was issued
an appearance ticket on the misdemeanor charge, collected his car from the
traffic division then drove himself home, according to Public Safety
Commissioner John C. Nielsen.

Nielsen, who said he has met the doctor several times, was called about the
arrest Sunday evening by a desk sergeant. Nielsen on Thursday defended the
decision to drop the charges.

But a number of people have raised questions about the handling of the case.

Clyne initially defended the decision to drop the drug charge, saying the
doctor's story matched that of the police officers and that a prominent
citizen deserved the benefit of the doubt.

Moores has been a surgeon at St. Peter's Hospital for 15 years and in 1999
was recognized by Good Housekeeping magazine as one of the top women's
cancer surgeons.

A St. Peter's spokesman declined to comment on the dropped charges.

Clyne said Wednesday the doctor's story about someone jumping in his car
was plausible and the assistant district attorney acted appropriately. The
corner of Lark and Livingston is a well-known drug market.

"The intimation of the defense attorney was that this was an overly
aggressive drug dealer," Clyne said. "(The prosecutor) made the decision to
let the guy off."

Clyne now says the decision to drop the charge was a mistake. He was not
aware the decision was made until after it happened, he said.

Most first-time offenders would face a $100 fine for a misdemeanor drug
possession charge, Clyne said.

Clyne has since learned that the arresting officer contradicted the
doctor's story on a key point. The complaint filed by the arresting
officer, Brian Kisling, said Moores, not the drug dealer, had thrown the
crack out of the car.

"The defendant did throw two pieces of alleged crack cocaine out the
driver's side window," Kisling wrote in his signed complaint.

"I'm not particularly happy with the result because obviously the public
perception is that this guy got some kind of break because of who he is,"
Clyne said.

Neidl and Moores did not return calls.

The dropped drug charge sparked outrage from civil rights activists and
defense attorneys who said Moores got preferential treatment.

"It's the old story," said Alice Green, executive director of the Center
for Law and Justice in Albany. "The guy's a doctor, he lives in
Loudonville, he's white. They give him the benefit of the doubt. The system
doesn't like to prosecute those kinds of people."

Defense lawyer Terence L. Kindlon said he had never heard of charges being
dismissed so quickly.

"This is completely 100 percent without precedent in my knowledge," Kindlon
said. "It stinks to high heaven. This DA's office is indicting everybody
who moves, bragging about how many people have been charged and indicted.
And you get one rich white surgeon jammed up, and now all of a sudden what
is normally considered a grossly improbable and unbelievable story becomes
a simple justification for a dismissal of drug charges."

Clyne said Thursday that there is little he can do now that the charges
have been withdrawn.

"He (Calderon) made a decision and we will have to abide by that decision,"
Clyne said.