OFFICER PROVIDED PROTECTION, DRUG GANG MEMBERS TESTIFY

Two members of a Southwest Washington drug gang testified yesterday that
they paid D.C. police officer Andrew James McGill Jr. for protecting them
from possible criminal charges and tipping off gang members to police raids.

The men, both of whom have pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and
testified in exchange for lesser prison sentences, said McGill often
socialized with them and other drug gang members, joining some of them for
a ski trip to Pennsylvania, a shopping trip to an outlet mall in Upstate
New York, and a party with five strippers.

One gang member, Jeffrey "Fat Cat" Ewing, testified in U.S. District Court
in Greenbelt that McGill once tried to sell him a half-pound of marijuana
that the officer had stashed in a closet in his District apartment. Ewing
testified that McGill wanted $250 for the marijuana; he said he didn't buy
it because he didn't like the way it looked.

Ewing also testified that he and McGill had a three-digit code that McGill
would use to signal when the police were coming. He told the jury that on
several occasions he gave McGill $50 or $60 because McGill was helping him
and his friends.

But in an aggressive cross-examination aimed at Ewing's credibility,
defense attorney William C. Brennan got him to acknowledge that he lied
under oath numerous times when he testified before a federal grand jury in
July.

McGill, 29, is on trial before U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow on
charges of drug conspiracy, interstate transportation of stolen property
and perjury. The perjury charge stems from McGill's testimony to a federal
grand jury in August that he never tipped off the drug gang to police raids
and that he did not buy marijuana from one of the drug gang's members.

The charges arose from a two-year U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
investigation of the gang, which sold marijuana, heroin and crack out of an
apartment building at 37 Forrester St. SW, in the 7th Police District.
McGill was assigned to the 7th Police District from 1990, when he joined
the force, until he was transferred in mid-1997.

Though D.C. police, the FBI and ultimately the DEA investigated the drug
gang through most of the 1990s, McGill did not surface as a suspect in the
DEA probe until the latter part of 1998, according to federal officials.

While DEA agents obtained audiotapes, videotapes and still photos capturing
members of the drug gang engaging in narcotics sales, McGill is not on any
of the incriminating tapes or in any of the photographs, according to his
attorney.

Without surveillance evidence against McGill, federal prosecutors are
relying on the unlikely combination of testimony from gang members,
including leader Erskine "Pee Wee" Hartwell, and McGill's fellow police
officers.

Since the jury began hearing evidence on Tuesday, four D.C. police officers
have testified that they saw McGill make phone calls after learning of
imminent police raids on Hartwell's stronghold. The raids were thwarted; in
one instance, suspects ran from the house moments after McGill placed a
phone call, according to court testimony.

Drug gang member Hilary Haynes testified yesterday that Hartwell introduced
him to McGill in early 1998 and that he and other gang members knew McGill
was a police officer. Haynes said he saw McGill participate
unenthusiastically in "jump-out" operations, in which police swarm a
drug-selling location to try to arrest dealers.

"What would you do when he pulled up by himself?" Assistant U.S. Attorney
Jim Trusty asked Haynes.

"It was all good," Haynes replied. "We'd continue what we were doing.
Selling weed."

Haynes testified that McGill asked him for $200 after he and an associate
were arrested, but ultimately not charged, following a brief car chase.
Haynes testified that he and the associate were selling and smoking
marijuana on Forrester Street when an officer who was driving McGill tried
to arrest them.

Haynes testified that he and his friend bolted to a car and led the
officers on a chase, during which his friend swallowed a blunt--a
marijuana-laced cigar--that they were smoking. Knowing there were no drugs
in the car, Haynes testified, he pulled over and was arrested for reckless
driving.

While he was in the police cellblock, Haynes testified, McGill came by and
told him to "just chill." Haynes testified that he was released that night
and that McGill came by the next day asking for $200.

Haynes testified that he paid McGill "for the favor he did for me. I was
out of jail; I didn't have to go to court." Haynes said he considered the
payment tantamount to paying a fine for speeding.