CHARGES AGAINST OFFICER STIR NEW CLAIMS OF ABUSE ON STREET

In Drug-Hit Areas, Few Seem Surprised

Virginia Johnson walked along Presstman Street on a crisp fall morning
yesterday, trying to satisfy her drug habit, ever vigilant for an
opportunity -- or for trouble.

The 49-year-old watches for the police officers she knows by nickname,
Super Cop and Creeper. And she knows the unwritten code of the street:
Don't be anywhere near an officer when a hidden stash of cocaine or heroin
is discovered.

"If you're in the area and they find drugs, it's yours," Johnson said.
"That's the way it works. Whoever is closest gets the charge."

Hardly anyone interviewed yesterday in the Druid Heights and Upton
neighborhoods was surprised by last week's arrest of Officer Brian L.
Sewell on charges that he falsely arrested a man for drug possession on
Presstman Street.

"If I'm dirty, I'll take the charge," said Derrick Wright, 37, an
acknowledged drug addict who said he was arrested three months ago, but
never possessed the 28 heroin pills an officer claimed to have found in his
pocket.

"I didn't think the cops could be so crooked."

The case against Sewell has potentially far-reaching implications for the
Baltimore Po-lice Department. Top police officials held a news conference
last week after Sewell was indicted on misconduct in office and perjury
charges and lauded themselves for coming clean with potential wrongdoing.
In so doing, they opened themselves up to stinging criticism that
corruption runs deep.

Criminal suspects, most of whom have lengthy criminal records and little
credibility when it comes to complaints, are finding new legitimacy for
their claims of abuse.

Cases Being Researched

Prosecutors said they will throw out any case in which Sewell was the
primary arresting officer. The Baltimore public defender's office is
researching six years' worth of Sewell's cases and looking at other
officers as well.

And lawyers are coming forward with complaints about other cases.

Sewell is charged with arresting a man he said he saw place drugs on a park
bench. Undercover officers said they put the drugs there as part of a
random corruption sting.

Police commanders are concerned about the possibility of other problem
officers. Asked at the news conference how many others might be committing
similar misdeeds, Commissioner Edward T. Norris answered: "I don't know
where it's going to take us."

Individual complaints, however, are difficult to sort out. Many drug cases
end with only two people who know what really happened: the suspect and the
police officer.

"All those type of cases rely on the testimony and integrity of the
officers," said Maj. Steven McMahon, who commands the Central District and
is Sewell's boss.

Honest Officers Hurt

Police commanders are quick to say that the vast majority of officers on
the 3,200-member force are honest, and that months of random integrity
tests have resulted in only one alleged failure. But they also concede that
an arrest of one of their own makes it hard for honest officers to do their
jobs.

"Anytime you have an allegation of somebody doing something wrong, it's
going to be assumed there are others out there doing it too" McMahon said.
"It brings discredit on all of the good, hard-working officers."

The neighborhoods around Presstman Street are top priorities for police
struggling to curtail crime and drugs. St. Katherine Memorial Park, where
Sewell found the drugs police say were left by Internal Affairs, is
littered with trash.

Johnson walked by the park and pointed to the drug dealers who had set up
shop in a public square three blocks away, where Fremont Avenue meets
Pennsylvania Avenue. Walls of nearby rowhouses are spray painted with the
names of the dead victims of the city's drug trade: T-Kelly; Travis; Mont.

There is a symbiotic relationship between police and dealers, who work hard
to exploit each other's weaknesses.

The dealers even have given police nicknames. Creeper can sneak up on
anybody without making a noise; Super Cop makes a lot of arrests; King is
arrogant; Big Dirty implies corrupt.

Raymond Smith, 70, lives across from the park in the last rowhouse
remaining on his side of Presstman Street. The city demolished the rest
after a drug dealer burned one down and a teen-ager was shot and killed.

Smith, who has lived there for 15 years, said that whatever police are
doing, "it's 100 percent better than it was. They were selling drugs even
on Sundays when church was in service. Now I can sleep at night."

Sewell arrested Raymond Vernon Banks, 31, on Sept. 2 near Wilmer Court,
just off Pennsylvania Avenue, and charged him with drugs found stashed
behind a brick wall. He wrote in his report that he saw Banks get drugs
from a woman and then hide them near the wall and cover them with dirt.

Banks spent more than a month in Central Booking. On Friday, the date of
his preliminary hearing, the state's attorney dropped all charges against
him, pointing to Sewell's inability to testify because he is under indictment.

Civil Suit Planned

Banks' lawyer, Jamal L. McFadden, said he is planning a civil suit against
the city claiming false arrest and that his client -- who has a criminal
history that includes convictions on burglary, breaking and entering and
assault -- was hit and kicked during his arrest.

"My client has maintained his innocence from the beginning," McFadden said.

Attorney Margaret A. Mead said her client, Tyrice Caldwell, 21, was
wrongfully arrested by Sewell. The officer wrote in his report that he saw
Caldwell sell drugs to three people in the 700 block of Mosher St. on July 15.

Sewell wrote that he chased Caldwell for two blocks before catching him and
finding a bag with 49 gel caps of heroin in his right front pants pocket.

Mead said her client had just left a barbershop, had no money when
arrested, and can't run because of a physical disability.

But Sewell is not the only arresting officer in this case. His partner is
listed in the report as witnessing the alleged drug transaction, and four
officers are listed as chasing Caldwell.

Officer John Pessia said in an interview that he was one of them, and he
saw drugs being pulled from the man's pocket.

Sewell has declined to comment about his situation. His lawyer, Henry L.
Belsky, has decried the use of the undercover sting and said his client has
a legitimate defense. Belsky has not elaborated.

The police union president, Officer Gary McLhinney, said he is not
surprised that defense lawyers "are jumping on the bandwagon" to fault police.

"These lawyers need to try their cases based on the merit of their
individual case," the union president said, adding that lawyers are trying
to divert blame. "There aren't too many admitted drug dealers in the
penitentiary. Most of them deny their guilt and try to find a loophole to
get off."