AMID DRUG SCANDAL, CHICAGO POLICE SPLITS UP ANTI-GANG UNIT

Experienced officer accused of running drugs

Chicago -- With one officer awaiting trial for allegedly running a cocaine
ring, at least four others under investigation in the case and federal
prosecutors hinting that more indictments are on the way, the Chicago Police
Department has begun an overhaul of its elite anti- gang unit.

The move, coming less than a month after the Los Angeles Police Department
disbanded its own anti-gang units amid widespread corruption, is intended to
increase supervision of Chicago's gang officers.

Members of the gang detail -- much like their LAPD counterparts --
historically operated with little oversight as they nurtured relationships
with some of Chicago's seediest characters in an attempt to infiltrate drug
rings and solve gang-related crimes.

The laissez-faire atmosphere may have worked to the advantage of Officer
Joseph Miedzianowski, who federal prosecutors contend piloted a crew of
crooked cops and drug-dealing informants. Over the past decade and a half,
the group allegedly bought and sold cocaine, ripped off drugs and cash from
dealers and even helped a murder suspect hide from investigators.

Although department officials say the changes are part of a natural
institutional evolution, they also acknowledge the influence of the
Miedzianowski case.

``It's something that's been talked about since the Miedzianowski case came
to light,'' Patrick Camden, the department's head spokesman, said of the
restructuring. ``I'm sure it figures into the equation.''

Currently, all 104 members of the anti-gang unit work out of the same
building in the city's crime-addled West Side. Spreading out those officers
will be one of the first items of business.

The unit will be split in half, with 52 officers reassigned to the narcotics
division and 52 to the detective division. Those who go to narcotics will
concentrate on gang-related drug crimes, and those who pull detective duty
will focus on gang-related slayings and other violent crimes.

The moves will put the officers in smaller groups, operating in units that
historically have had more structure.

BETTER SUPERVISION

``In reading between the lines, what they're trying to do is tighten up
oversight,'' said William Nolan, president of the officers union, the
Fraternal Order of Police.

The union has not opposed the changes, but plans to make certain they do not
violate current contracts.

``These guys are gang crimes specialists and will remain so,'' Nolan said.

Although Police Superintendent Terry Hillard has not specified his reasons
for the shakeup, the changes also appear to signal a fundamental shift in
the way the department will combat gangs.

Hillard's predecessor, Matt Rodriguez, began focusing less on street- level
thuggery in the early 1990s and more on senior gang members and their
involvement in larger conspiracies. The new arrangement will shift manpower
back to targeting day-to-day mayhem and drug running, department officials
said.

Unlike the national attention heaped on police scandals in Los Angeles and
New York, Chicago's problems have remained mostly local affairs. But as the
incidents have stacked up -- most of them involving patrol officers, not
anti-gang squads -- scrutiny of the entire department has become more
intense.

Chicago police shot and killed two unarmed motorists last summer.

The first, Bobby Russ, a Northwestern University football player, lunged for
an officer's gun after leading patrol cars on a chase, police said. The
second was LaTanya Haggerty, a 26-year-old passenger in a car that also had
fled police. Haggerty, who was holding a cellular phone, had her hands in
the air when she was shot, one witness said.

In both cases, the officers and the victims were African American.
Nevertheless, both shootings led to demonstrations accusing police of
racism.

Then, in January, Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced a de facto moratorium
on executions until an inquiry could answer why more death row inmates had
been exonerated than executed in the state since capital punishment was
reinstated in 1977.

In the past 23 years, 12 inmates have been put to death in Illinois and 13
have been set free -- most on the basis of new DNA evidence. Several of the
cases involve allegations that investigators coerced confessions from
suspects or testimony from witnesses.

But it is the alleged years of misdeeds by the 46-year-old Miedzianowski,
sources said, that are a key reason behind the shakeup of the gang unit.

COP'S ALLEGED CORRUPTION

A tall, tough, 22-year veteran, Miedzianowski -- who has pleaded not
guilty -- spent 16 years on the gang unit. Almost from the time he joined
the detail, prosecutors allege, he began organizing a tight-knit, sometimes
violent, drug cartel.

Eleven co-defendants, none of them officers, pleaded guilty and are
cooperating with federal investigators.

Last month, a former leader of the Latin Lovers street gang -- who
prosecutors say was Miedzianowski's primary partner in the scheme -- laid
out in detail more than a dozen shakedowns, extortions, robberies and
case-fixings.

Testifying in a federal hearing as he sought a plea agreement, confessed
killer Nelson Padilla told of setting up drug buys and tipping off
Miedzianowski, who Padilla said would rush in, make arrests and steal the
drugs and cash -- later to be divided among the conspirators, including
other officers.

Padilla testified about helping Miedzianowski plan raids on the homes of
drug dealers for a share of the loot, about being picked up at the airport
by Miedzianowski as he arrived with cocaine from Florida, about providing
Miedzianowski small quantities of cocaine to plant on people whom the
officer wanted to arrest.

Padilla also testified that Miedzianowski worked to ``fix'' cases -- most
notably his own.

In 1990, Miedzianowski argued against a 25-year sentence that prosecutors
sought after Padilla was convicted of a drug charge, helping persuade a
judge to give him eight years.

In 1993, Padilla was paroled, and, he testified, he and other gang members
were frequent guests of Miedzianowski at a shooting range. In 1995, Padilla
shot and killed a rival gang member.

Miedzianowski, prosecutors allege, not only helped hide Padilla from
investigators, but, along with another unnamed officer, provided him with a
cellular phone, food and a list of witnesses to the slaying.

In return for his testimony, prosecutors recommended that Padilla receive no
more than 22 1/2 years in his current case, rather than a possible life
sentence.

Miedzianowski's attorney, Ralph Meczyk, withdrew suddenly from the case last
week, months after prosecutors revealed they may call him as a witness
against his own client. Meczyk represented drug dealers in two cases that
Miedzianowski allegedly helped influence, although prosecutors say they have
no evidence that Meczyk was involved.

Police watchdog groups call the proposed restructuring of the anti-gang unit
a step in the right direction. But many would prefer a more comprehensive
overhaul, like the one taking place in Los Angeles. Still others say even
the LAPD's plan is too tame to address what they consider systemic
corruption.