EX-PROSECUTOR'S STAFFER ADMITS ILLEGAL DRUG SEARCH

A former investigator for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office
admitted in court yesterday that he and three others illegally
searched the home of a drug suspect without a warrant and that he lied
to a grand jury to cover up the crime.

In pleading guilty in Superior Court in Newark, Thomas Smith agreed to
testify against his co-defendants in the case, who include Priscilla
Corcoran, the former deputy chief of investigations in the
prosecutor's office.

Smith pleaded guilty to false swearing and falsifying records. Deputy
Attorney General Shelia Ellington said that in exchange for his
testimony, the state would drop the more serious charges of official
misconduct, conspiracy and perjury and recommend that he receive no
jail time.

The plea agreement also requires that Smith never again work as a law
enforcement officer or public employee.

Superior Court Judge Donald Merkelbach set sentencing for July 17. He
is expected to give the defendant probation, fines and 150 hours of
community service.

The charges stem from a raid that the prosecutor's narcotics task
force conducted in a drug suspect's home at 32 Beech St. in East
Orange on May 7, 1998. A judge had denied the investigators a search
warrant for the raid the day before, but they went to the home anyway.

In his plea yesterday, Smith said that he, Corcoran and the other two
defendants - Capt. Darrel Dungan, the head of the narcotics task
force, and Herman Rivera, a detective in the county sheriffs
department went to the home planning to search without a warrant.

Under questioning by his lawyer, Felix Lopez-Montalvo, Smith said they
created a story that the suspect, Victor Hurt, was out front when they
arrived and dropped a bag with 51 vials of cocaine on the ground as he
fled inside.

"It wasn't true," he said. "We made it up."

Smith said he prepared a report with the false information and, on
Aug. 10, 1998, lied to the grand jury about the circumstances of
Hurt's arrest. Hurt was indicted on the drug charges, but the case has
since been dismissed.

The investigation of the four defendants was one of the issues that
led the state Attorney General's Office to strip former Prosecutor
Patricia Hurt of most of her power in July 1989. She resigned a month
later and her acting successor, Donald Campolo, has revamped the
narcotics task force.

Patricia Hurt had hand-picked Corcoran and Dungan for their highlevel
positions despite complaints from others in the office that they did
not have the experience to handle them.

Victor Hurt, who is not related to the former prosecutor, filed a
lawsuit against the county and the prosecutor's office in April. He
alleges that the investigators beat him after they entered his home
and coerced him into signing a form that said he had consented to the
search.

The suit claims that while Corcoran was at 32 Beech St. during the
raid, she kept in constant contact with Patricia Hurt by cell phone.

Corcoran, Dunson and Rivera are expected to go on trial in the
fall.

William Kleinknecht covers criminal justice issues and the Essex
County courts. He can be reached at wkleinknecht@starledger.com or
(973) 642-4065.