DEA TAKES LEAD AGENT OFF RAP CASE

Move Called Reprisal For Frank Testimony

In a move condemned by his lawyer as retaliation, the agent who led the
DEA's troubled investigation of a Houston rap music entrepreneur has been
barred from further work on the case and removed from his liaison job with
the Harris County district attorney's office.

Houston attorney Michael Hinton said the action against his client, Drug
Enforcement Administration Agent Jack Schumacher, is questionable because
it came just after he testified before Congress and at the same time that
new information began to surface in the investigation targeting James A.
Prince and his associates at Rap-A-Lot Records.

"Jack Schumacher has got a tremendous background in this case. He knows it
better than anybody. And less than two weeks after he tells Congress what
went wrong, this happens?" Mr. Hinton said. "It shows no concern for
Congress, no concern for right or wrong, and no concern for setting this
criminal investigation back on track."

A DEA spokesman in Houston declined to comment Friday and said the agency's
Houston chief, Ernest L. Howard, was also unavailable for comment.

But prosecutors who worked on the case for the Harris County district
attorney's office said they had received no explanation for the DEA's
recent moves. They said they feared that Mr. Schumacher was being punished
for his frank testimony before Congress about how political influence
sidetracked the Rap-A-Lot probe.

"I'm at least suspect about what's going on," assistant Harris County
prosecutor Craig Goodhart said. "Is there a logical reason? No. I can't
think of a logical reason for it. He's an investigator ­ a good one. He
should be allowed to investigate."

Mr. Prince has not been charged with wrongdoing. He has long maintained
that he has been targeted by Houston police and federal investigators
because he is young, black and rose from a Houston ghetto to wealth and
national music industry prominence.

Mr. Schumacher and three Houston Police Department drug investigators who
worked on the Rap-A-Lot case told a congressional committee this month that
they were making substantial progress in the case until the head of the
DEA's Houston office ordered all new investigative work halted in September
1999.

Chief denies allegation

Although the DEA's Houston chief, Mr. Howard, denied that, Mr. Schumacher
and the Houston officers told the House Government Reform Committee that
Mr. Howard had announced the shutdown of the case and told those on the
task force that the move was caused by political pressure.

Mr. Howard's announcement came shortly after U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los
Angeles, complained on Mr. Prince's behalf, telling Attorney General Janet
Reno that he was a victim of racial profiling, brutality and other
civil-rights violations by "rogue" DEA agents.

The officers testified that her complaint effectively derailed a two-year
investigative effort that had brought more than 20 state and federal drug
convictions ­ including 10 against employees and associates of Mr. Prince.

Ms. Waters' complaint prompted a 14-month internal DEA investigation of Mr.
Schumacher and another agent assigned to the case. The officers were told
in October that they were cleared and that no evidence had been found to
support Ms. Waters' allegations.

Mr. Howard told the congressional committee that his office's investigative
effort against Mr. Prince had to be curtailed and the agents involved
thoroughly investigated even though he and senior DEA officials in
Washington viewed Ms. Waters' complaints as baseless.

Several congressmen condemned that curtailment repeatedly during the two
days of hearings, and some of the committee's senior members also pointedly
questioned Mr. Howard's account of his actions in the case.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Indiana, called
the hearing and subpoenaed Mr. Schumacher, Mr. Howard and other officials
to testify after the Justice Department began blocking the House Government
Reform Committee's efforts to find out what had happened in the Rap-A-Lot case.

Justice officials intervened after the DEA turned over a series of March
2000 e-mails in which Mr. Howard told senior DEA officials in Washington
that intensifying political pressure was forcing him to shut down the
Rap-A-Lot case.

The e-mails were sent two days after Vice President Al Gore made a campaign
stop at a Houston church that had been scrutinized during the DEA's
Rap-A-Lot probe because of its financial support from Mr. Prince.

Mr. Howard wrote in one e-mail that he had been told that Mr. Prince had a
photo opportunity with Mr. Gore; the vice president's spokesmen have said
he had no involvement in the case.

In early November, a senior Justice official wrote the congressional
committee that his agency and the DEA had decided to send in a new team of
agents and supervisors from outside the Houston DEA office to work on the
Rap-A-Lot case. The official also announced that the Justice Department had
launched an investigator general's probe to examine the complaints about
political influence in the Houston investigation.

Old files investigation

The inspector general's investigation is ongoing. But DEA Administrator
Donnie Marshall said in the congressional hearings that the special team of
agents sent to Houston was only assigned to review old files from the case
and report back on whether there were viable areas of investigation.

He said the team completed its work in late November and recently reported
its findings, which he declined to discuss in an open hearing.

After the hearing, information began surfacing on Rap-A-Lot and its
associates, and Mr. Schumacher was told to begin reorganizing his old
investigative team to try to revitalize the case, said his lawyer, Mr. Hinton.

But the agent was then told that Mr. Howard had issued orders that he could
not work on the case, and that it instead would be assigned to another
Houston agent who had briefly worked on it before the DEA-Houston police
investigative team was formed, Mr. Hinton said.

"This has been absolutely crazy. Jack Schumacher was told to start up again
by one DEA supervisor and then was told six hours later by another that Mr.
Howard had vetoed that and he was off the case," said Mr. Hinton, a former
senior Harris County prosecutor.

"He was told that Howard wanted a fresh set of eyes on the case, but it was
then assigned to an agent who had worked on it when it was getting nowhere
­ back before Howard first brought in Schumacher to try to get something
done," he said.

Mr. Schumacher was told late last week that he was being removed from the
district attorney's office, Mr. Hinton and several current prosecutors said.

The district attorney's office provided the first key leads in the
Rap-A-Lot investigation after Mr. Schumacher was assigned to head it in
August 1998, Mr. Hinton said, and successfully prosecuted several criminal
cases within the last year that originated from the Rap-A-Lot investigation.

"They remove the key agent, the man who knows this case better than anyone.
And then they move him from the office that was successfully prosecuting
the cases that the feds wouldn't or couldn't get done," Mr. Hinton said.
"What else could this be but retaliation?"

Mr. Goodhart, the Harris County prosecutor, said his agency's special
crimes bureau is pursuing the case. But he acknowledged that the DEA's
recent moves on the Rap-A-Lot case would affect their efforts.

"Limiting our access to Jack makes it a little difficult for us to do
things ­ not impossible, but he has helped speed up the process," he said.
"He's been a clearinghouse for us. He's got a wealth of information, and
we'd like to be able to use it."