PROSECUTORS' TACTICS IN FEDERAL CASES RAISE MISCONDUCT QUESTIONS

The federal prosecutors and agents who put bad guys in prison and
fight the fiercest battles in the war on drugs often say they're doing
`God's work.' But increasingly, judges in Texas' Southern Judicial
District must decide if government tactics are righteous or wrong.

In the past few months, four federal judges in Houston have been asked
to consider allegations of serious misconduct by federal prosecutors
or FBI agents -- all in high-profile cases that could have
far-reaching effects on cases spanning state and international borders.

U.S. District Judges Kenneth Hoyt and Nancy Atlas have added their
voices to the chorus of criminal defense attorneys expressing concern
over everything from use of falsified evidence and perjured testimony
to bribery.

Hoyt directed the acquittal of 10 defendants in a bank fraud case,
citing prosecutorial misconduct in a scathing 1996 memorandum and
spawning three malicious prosecution lawsuits against the Department
of Justice. The department settled one last year, paying Houston
businessman Paul Licata $500,000. The others are pending before U.S.
District Judge Vanessa Gilmore.

Last month, Atlas dismissed civil rights charges against two former
Houston police officers in the death of Pedro Oregon Navarro because
prosecutors used what they knew was perjured testimony to obtain the
indictments.

Longtime Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said the
influence of politics and a lack of accountability have fostered an
anything-goes mentality in federal law enforcement.

To Holmes, law-enforcement personnel are sworn to uphold the law, not
break it. Honesty and integrity are indispensable tools in the justice
system, he said.

"I don't want to toot my own horn," Holmes said, "but when two defense
attorneys were concerned because a federal witness called them and
asked for $50,000 to leave the country they called me, they didn't go
to the U.S. attorney" (who at that time was Gaynelle Griffin Jones).

"It was my wire on the lawyers (Kent Schaffer and Dan Cogdell) that
recorded the government's snitch trying to get them to do something
crooked," Holmes said, adding that Schaffer and Cogdell are held in
high regard in the legal community.

Holmes said two federal prosecutors and a drug agent, at first,
professed shock. But he later learned the key witness in the 1997 drug
case was acting at the behest of the government, as part of a sting
operation.

"If they'll come after Cogdell and me without any reason, they'll go
after anybody," said Schaffer, who was unaware of the government's
role. "The public should be scared to death."

Holmes' office was deeply involved in the investigation of the Oregon
shooting. Oregon, 22, was slain in 1998 while six Houston police
officers were pursuing an informant's tip that drugs were being sold
in his brother's southwest Houston apartment, police said.

A Harris County grand jury indicted former Officer James Willis on
charges of misdemeanor criminal trespass. But his acquittal in state
court prompted federal authorities to enter the politically charged
case.

Willis, 29, and former Sgt. Darrell Strouse, 35, were indicted earlier
this year on charges that they conspired to deprive Oregon of his
civil rights during a drug investigation involving Oregon's brother,
Rogelio.

Although neither defendant was involved in the shooting, federal
prosecutors said they were involved in planning the illegal entry into
the apartment.

The officers had no search or arrest warrant, but contended they had
probable cause to enter the apartment because their informant had
arrived there to buy drugs. They also maintained the shooting began
when Oregon pointed a gun at them.

In preparation for the federal trial, defense attorneys Chip Lewis and
Michael Ramsey discovered major discrepancies in Rogelio Oregon
Pineda's sworn testimony before state and federal grand juries.

In dismissing the indictments, Atlas faulted prosecutors for
presenting false testimony to a federal grand jury.

Defense attorneys challenged Holmes and U.S. Attorney Mervyn Mosbacker
to charge Rogelio Oregon with perjury. A state grand jury issued an
indictment last month.

Holmes said the indictments against the officers show politics plays a
big role in the realm of federal law enforcement.

He said his discouragement with the way the federal authorities
handled the Oregon case was a factor in his own decision to retire at
the end of his term.

The case, which received massive publicity in Texas and Mexico, drew
comments and letters from Texas politicians and the community alike.
Holmes recalled that while he and other law-enforcement officials were
awaiting a meeting with FBI Director Louis Freeh, during a visit to
the Houston FBI office, they saw U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee,
D-Houston, the Oregon family and the attorneys representing the family
in a civil lawsuit leave after an hour-long meeting with the director.

With the cost of complex, federal investigations reaching more than $1
million and often taking years of an agent's and prosecutor's time,
federal law-enforcement officials are under incredible pressure to
make and win cases.

"There's an enormous pressure," said Houston defense attorney David
Adler, who represents a former CIA agent convicted with the aid of
false evidence. "If you've invested time and funds, then you damn well
better come up with somebody's scalp, or it'll be your scalp. I've
never heard of a big investigation that didn't result in
indictments."

Former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich, who
blasted the FBI laboratory for flawed scientific work and inaccurate,
pro-prosecution testimony in the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center
bombings, said the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration must be
subject to outside scrutiny to curb abuses.

"Most prosecutors would rather lose a case than enhance evidence," he
said. "Sometimes when you get into a case that isn't as strong as you
hoped it would be, there's a temptation to embellish evidence."

Bromwich said the FBI, in particular, has a privileged status that
enables agents to operate with little scrutiny. Investigations of
misconduct are carried out by the FBI's own Office of Professional
Responsibility.

Defense attorney Ramsey said it is up to the judiciary to ensure that
justice is done.

In Houston's squat, square-windowed federal courthouse, matters are
pending before Gilmore and U.S. district judges Ewing Werlein and Lynn
Hughes.

But while Gilmore presides over two cases involving the aftermath of
misconduct, Hughes and Werlein will decide what course three important
crimi nal cases take.

Hughes, known for having little tolerance for government shenanigans,
has already taken a major step in the public corruption case against
former Texas prisons director James A. "Andy" Collins and contractor
Yank Barry.

After learning that two informants, Michael and Patrick Graham, had
struck secret, oral immunity agreements with federal prosecutors in
Louisiana, Hughes and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Cobe in Houston
agreed that the agent and federal prosecutor involved must give sworn
statements about the nature of the agreement.

The veteran prosecutor, who has an impeccable reputation for honesty,
candidly told Hughes that such an agreement was a departure from
Justice Department guidelines.

Ramsey contends that the Graham brothers went to the FBI with tales of
public corruption in Louisiana and Texas as a means of mitigating
their punishment in a prison-break scheme and other felony crimes.

Collins is accused of accepting favors from Barry, a Canadian
businessman who owns VitaPro, maker of a soy-based meat substitute
that was sold to the Texas prison system.

Jurors in Baton Rouge are in the midst of deliberating the fates of
former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, his son Stephen, and five others
on federal racketeering charges. The 34-count indictment accuses the
former governor and his son of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars
in payoffs from casino owners seeking licenses during the last of
Edwards' four terms in office.

New Orleans U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan has intervened in two courts in
Texas to quash any attempts to take the depositions before Edwards'
trial concludes.

Defense attorneys speculated that the Justice Department will
intervene to prevent the depositions if a mistrial is declared.

Hughes is expected to rule soon on a motion to throw out the
arms-smuggling conviction of Edwin Wilson, who has been fighting for a
new trial from a Pennsylvania prison cell for 17 years.

The Justice Department acknowledged in February that federal
prosecutors knowingly submitted a false affidavit to help convict
Wilson. But they contend he is not entitled to a new trial because the
bogus evidence was inconsequential and unrelated to the charges.

Charged with selling 20 tons of plastic C-4 explosives to Libya's
Moammar Gadhafi, Wilson became a major embarrassment to the U.S.
government when he waged a media war against the CIA, claiming he had
acted at the agency's behest.

Federal attorneys prosecuted Wilson in three jurisdictions. They
maintained the ex-agent shipped arms to Libya from Texas and Virginia,
then plotted to have the prosecutor who spearheaded the cases killed
in New York. He was sentenced to a total of 52 years in prison.

At the core of the arms-smuggling cases was a sworn affidavit by
then-CIA executive director Charles Briggs that Wilson had done no
work for the agency after his Feb. 28, 1971, retirement.

But prosecutors now admit Wilson had at least 80 "nonsocial" contacts
with CIA personnel after his retirement, according to documents filed
by the government in the Houston case.

Adler said the Justice Department informed him just last week that
they had just located two boxes of documents pertaining to the case --
more than a year past Hughes' disclosure deadline.

Werlein, another veteran judge, has yet to rule on a September motion
for a hearing in the case of convicted drug kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego.

Defense attorney Michael Pancer contends that the Mexican and U.S.
governments collaborated on a plan to pay $3 million to capture Garcia
Abrego, then hid the details from the jury that convicted him in a
1996 trial hailed as a triumph for the binational drug effort.

Attorneys for Garcia Abrego filed a motion Friday asking for a new
trial on grounds that federal prosecutors encouraged perjury from star
witness Carlos Resendez Bertolocci and hid crucial evidence about
financial agreements they made with him prior to his testimony.

The allegations are based on statements by Resendez and Mexican
attorney Raquenel Villanueva Fraustro, who said she brokered a deal
with U.S. prosecutors in which Resendez agreed to lie in exchange for
millions of dollars in payments by the U.S. government.

The deal soured when the United States paid Resendez only $1 million,
less than promised, the motion said. It said the Mexican government
paid $1 million to Resendez's former mistress, Noema Quintanilla, who
attorneys said actually arranged Garcia Abrego's capture at a ranch
near Monterrey in mid-January 1996.

Prosecutors responded in court documents by neither confirming nor
denying that a payment was made, but asserting the misconduct
allegations were untrue.

Defense attorneys submitted more evidence of the alleged misconduct to
the court in February -- receipts for $1.25 million in cashier's
checks paid to Resendez and Quintanilla. The checks were purchased
March 13, 1998, by FBI Agent Peter Hanna, according to documents
subpoenaed from NationsBank (now Bank of America) by attorneys for
Garcia Abrego.

Prosecutors have not responded, but Mosbacker has expressed confidence
in the integrity of the prosecutor and agent involved in the case.