GANG LEADER IMPLICATES OFFICER

The leader of a Southwest Washington drug gang testified yesterday that
D.C. police officer Andrew James McGill Jr. drove him and another gang
member around the city the night they stole two expensive sport-utility
vehicles. One belonged to then-Washington Wizards player Ben Wallace; the
other was taken from near FBI headquarters.

Erskine "Pee Wee" Hartwell also testified in U.S. District Court in
Greenbelt that he once sold a pound of marijuana to McGill, fronting the
officer the $800 wholesale price. Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart
A. Berman what McGill wanted the marijuana for, Hartwell replied, "He had
somebody who wanted to buy."

McGill, 29, who has been suspended from the D.C. police, is on trial before
Judge Deborah K. Chasanow on charges of drug conspiracy, interstate
transportation of stolen property and perjury. The perjury charge stems
from McGill's testimony in August to a federal grand jury that he never
tipped off gang members to police raids and never bought marijuana from them.

The charges arose from a two-year investigation of the gang by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration. According to court papers filed by federal
prosecutors, the gang, led by Hartwell, sold marijuana, heroin and crack
cocaine for about a decade before its key members were indicted and
arrested in May 1999.

Hoping for a lighter sentence, Hartwell pleaded guilty to federal drug
conspiracy and money laundering charges and agreed to testify against
McGill. He also admitted his role in three homicides and several nonfatal
shootings.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney William C. Brennan, Hartwell,
32, testified that he could be sent to prison for life without the
possibility of parole but that he hopes his testimony will result in a
sentence of 18 1/2 years.

McGill was assigned to the 7th Police District from 1990, when he joined
the force, until mid-1997, when he was transferred. DEA agents obtained
audiotapes, videotapes and still photos of some of the Hartwell gang's
illegal activities, but McGill is not on any of the incriminating tapes or
in any of the photographs, according to the officer's attorney.

Without surveillance evidence against McGill, federal prosecutors are
relying on an unlikely combination of testimony from Hartwell and other
gang members and McGill's fellow police officers.

Since the trial began last week, four D.C. police officers have testified
that they saw McGill make phone calls immediately after learning of
imminent police raids on Hartwell's stronghold. The raids were thwarted,
with suspects running from the house moments after McGill placed a phone
call, according to court testimony.

Julie K. Swanson, a DEA intelligence analyst, testified last week that
phone records showed that from January 1997 through April 1999, 18 calls
were made from phones that belonged to McGill or that he used to a pager
belonging to a Hartwell gang member. That gang member, Jeffrey "Fat Cat"
Ewing, testified that McGill paged him to warn him of police raids.

With yesterday's testimony from Hartwell, two gang members have testified
that McGill bought large amounts of marijuana from them.

On the night of Jan. 14, 1998, Hartwell testified, McGill drove him and
Sean "Weasel" Gray, another gang member, into the District as they looked
for cars to steal. They saw a Chevy Tahoe SUV near the FBI building, and
Gray hopped out and stole it, Hartwell testified.

Later that night, Hartwell testified, he and McGill saw the Chevy Tahoe
belonging to Ben Wallace parked near 14th and U streets NW. With McGill
still driving, they picked up Gray, who stole Wallace's SUV as he and
McGill watched, Hartwell testified.

Gray drove Wallace's SUV to Southwest Washington, where it was stripped of
its TV, stereo system and other accessories, Hartwell testified. A gang
member later drove the SUV to an abandoned farm in Clinton and left it
there after taking its wheels and alternator, Hartwell testified.

Although prosecutors have suggested in court papers that McGill knew and
helped the drug gang for nearly a decade, Hartwell testified that he met
McGill in 1995.

McGill, in his police uniform, was part of a crowd that gathered to
appreciate motorcycle stunts he was performing, Hartwell testified, adding
that he recognized McGill as being a 7th District officer. He said he and
McGill chatted briefly.

Shortly thereafter, police raided his Forrester Street SW building and
confiscated marijuana, jewelry, cash, and a store-bought police scanner,
Hartwell testified. Hartwell testified that a day or two later, he asked
McGill whether he could get his property back, and the officer replied that
most of it could not be recovered because drugs were found in the raid, but
that he would see about the scanner.

Later, Hartwell testified, McGill arranged to meet him in front of the D.C.
Superior Court building, where the officer returned the scanner without
Hartwell's having to fill out any paperwork. "I told him he was crazy, and
we both started laughing," Hartwell testified.