MCGILL LINKED TO DRUG GANG

Fellow District Officers Testify of Suspicious Incidents

District police officers who worked with Andrew James McGill Jr. testified
yesterday about unusual incidents and contacts between McGill and a
powerful drug gang that operated in Southwest Washington.

On one occasion, moments after McGill stepped away from a team of officers
about to search the gang's stronghold and made a phone call, everyone in
the drug house ran out, thwarting the operation, a fellow D.C. police
officer testified yesterday.

Another time, McGill said he was meeting with a police informant to pay
him, but instead received a roll of cash from the informant, D.C. Officer
Linda Ann Lewis testified in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.

The testimony of Lewis and another D.C. police officer was the first direct
evidence presented by prosecutors linking McGill to the drug gang. McGill,
29, is on trial before U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messite on charges of
drug conspiracy, interstate transportation of stolen property and perjury.

The perjury charge involves McGill's testimony under oath before a federal
grand jury that he never tipped off the drug gang to police raids and that
he did not buy marijuana from one of the gang's members.

Lewis testified that in 1996 and 1997, she and Lewis were on a team of
officers that targeted drug activity and gun trafficking in the 7th Police
District, where the crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana gang headed by
Erskine "Pee Wee" Hartwell operated.

Questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Trusty, Lewis testified that in
March 1997, McGill was among officers preparing to search at 37 Forrester
St. SW, the drug gang's headquarters.

The officers gathered nearby, Lewis testified, and when the target was
announced McGill immediately looked at his waistband and said his pager was
going off. Lewis said she did not hear any beeps or buzzes.

McGill said he had to make a phone call, but the sergeant told him not to
because they were preparing the raid, which seemed to upset McGill, Lewis
said. She said McGill began wandering away, and the sergeant called him.
Another officer lent McGill a cellular phone and he used it to make a call,
Lewis testified.

Moments later, she said, a police officer who was watching the house
reported over the police radio: "They're running, they're running! You
aren't gonna believe it, they're running!"

On another occasion, Lewis testified, McGill asked her to go with him while
he paid a police informant; by regulation, two officers must be present for
such payments.

McGill drove her to the Forrester Street house, where he got out of the car
and met with a man he said was his informant, Lewis testified. She said
McGill began telling the man, "That's [messed] up. I'm tired of it."

The man handed cash to McGill, a wad of bills about an eighth of an inch
thick, and McGill walked back to the car, tucking the money into his front
pants pocket, Lewis testified. McGill did not fill out any of the required
forms for paying informants, Lewis testified, adding that she reported the
incident to a sergeant.

Lewis also testified that she saw McGill and Hartwell, 32, ride motorcycles
together in front of the 7th Police District precinct, and that McGill
often complained about police operations against Forrester Street.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney William C. Brennan, Lewis
acknowledged she did not know whom McGill called just before the planned
search, or whether the call was completed. Lewis also testified under
cross-examination that "numerous" 7th Police District officers grew up in
the area and know suspects in the neighborhoods.