TEXAS DAS TO HALT SOME POT PROSECUTIONS

Say They Lack Funds To Press U.S. Cases

AUSTIN, Texas -- Cash-strapped Texas district attorneys along the
Texas-Mexico border will stop prosecuting federal marijuana cases beginning
July 1, a spokesman for the group said yesterday.

The U.S. Department of Justice refers cases in which smugglers are caught
at border checkpoints with 250 pounds or less of marijuana to state courts.
Local officials say the policy has overwhelmed their county legal systems.

"This partnership has gone one way for too long," said Jaime Esparza,
district attorney for El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties and head of
Southwest Border Prosecutors.

Officials with the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego said they haven't
heard of a problem with district attorneys prosecuting marijuana cases in
San Diego. They said district attorneys here will continue to accept
federal marijuana cases.

Esparza said his group has been negotiating for three years with the
Justice Department for either money or a policy change.

If there is no response by July 1, "we will assume that the federal
government will then accept the responsibility and prosecute these cases to
the full extent of the law as we do," he said.

The current policy has left some of the poorest counties in the nation
paying for the incarceration and prosecution of hundreds of additional drug
dealers every year, Esparza said.

Norma Estimbo Lacy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in
Houston, said two counties, Zapata and Webb, have refused marijuana
prosecutions for more than a year. In response, she said, the U.S.
attorney's office moved more staff to Laredo.

According to recent testimony before a state Senate committee, Texas
averages about 1,000 smuggler prosecutions along the border.

Esparza said a 2-year-old study found that counties bordering Mexico from
Texas to California spent between $48.5 million and $148.6 million
prosecuting federal drug crimes each year.

According to a 1994 agreement between the U.S. attorney's office in San
Diego and the San Diego District Attorney's Office, district attorneys
prosecute certain marijuana cases detected at the ports of entries, said
John Kraemer, executive assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego.

If, for example, the driver arrested in the bust is from San Diego or the
vehicle is registered in the county, then district attorneys can accept the
cases. But a federal prosecutor could take the case if it involves a
significant amount of marijuana intended for distribution, or if a suspect
is already under federal investigation or prosecution.

Federal funding helps the District Attorney's Office in San Diego handle
the prosecution of such cases, Kraemer said.

Staff writer Marisa Taylor contributed to this report.