FORMER D.C. OFFICER GETS 15 YEARS

Former D.C. police Officer Andrew James McGill Jr. was sentenced yesterday
to spend 15 years and eight months in federal prison for assisting a
Southwest Washington drug gang that operated in the District through most
of the 1990s.

Before nearly two dozen of his relatives and friends in a Greenbelt
courtroom, McGill struggled to maintain his composure as U.S. District
Judge Deborah K. Chasanow imposed the sentence.

Moments before, McGill had vehemently maintained his innocence.

"Your honor, I did my job," McGill said.

"This court has slandered me, has caused major embarrassment to my family
and my friends. Through it all, I stood and fought because I am innocent,"
McGill said.

McGill said he did not testify during his eight-day trial because he didn't
believe that he would be convicted based on the testimony of "drug dealers
and murderers," a reference to the six drug gang members prosecutors called
to testify.

"It's true I did claim [the drug dealers] as my friends. . . . I was raised
to treat people as you want to be treated, not to judge them," McGill said.
"It was my error that I took these co-defendants as my friends. I'm here to
take the punishment you will give me."

McGill ended by apologizing to his family for the pain he caused them,
fighting back tears, and asking Chasanow for mercy.

The judge said she saw things differently.

"Mr. McGill did clearly abuse his very important position of trust as a
police officer," Chasanow said.

In addition to the prison term, Chasanow ordered that McGill be on
supervised release for three years afterward and that he pay $100 to a fund
for crime victims.

Before passing sentence, Chasanow had to rule on a motion by defense
attorney William C. Brennan that argued McGill could not be sentenced to
more than a year in prison because of a recent Supreme Court ruling.

But Chasanow agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart A. Berman and
James A. Trusty that McGill was part of a drug conspiracy that sold far
more than 50 kilograms of marijuana over 10 years, making him subject to a
maximum of 20 years in prison.

"To suggest for a second that there was less than 50 kilograms of marijuana
involved is absurd," Chasanow said.

In May, a federal jury convicted McGill of one count of conspiracy to
distribute marijuana. The jury acquitted him of transporting a stolen car
across state lines and deadlocked on a charge of perjury.

According to evidence at his trial, McGill, 30, helped a drug gang he had
been assigned to investigate in the 7th Police District in 1996 and 1997,
when he was a member of a narcotics unit.

With no video or audio evidence of McGill engaging in any illegal activity,
prosecutors and agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration based
their case on an unusual combination: testimony by drug gang members and by
McGill's fellow police officers, and cell phone records.

Six drug gang members testified that McGill paged them numerous times to
warn them of imminent police raids, that he took cash payoffs ranging from
$50 to $200, and that he drove two of them around the city the night the
gang members stole two sport-utility vehicles.

Two of the members testified that McGill purchased a half-pound and a pound
of marijuana from them, respectively. The gang members all pleaded guilty
to federal drug charges and agreed to testify against McGill in exchange
for consideration for lighter sentences.

Eight D.C. police officers testified against McGill, detailing several
instances in which McGill made phone calls moments before drug raids, which
were thwarted.

Buttressing the officers' testimony, a DEA intelligence analyst testified
that 18 calls were made from McGill's phone, or phones the officer used, to
the pager of a drug gang member. That gang member testified that McGill
paged him to warn him of drug raids.

McGill joined the police department in 1990 and was assigned to the 7th
District.

By then, the FBI was already investigating a drug gang led by Erskine "Pee
Wee" Hartwell, which operated primarily out of a four-unit apartment
building at 37 Forrester St. SW.

The DEA began to investigate the gang in 1998. By May 1999, about a dozen
members of the gang, including Hartwell, had been indicted and arrested.