DRUG PROBE HINDERED, EX-COP TESTIFIES

Raymond Craig, seeking his job back, explains in an arbitration hearing why
he felt the investigation of a fellow officer was limited.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Former St. Petersburg police Officer Raymond Craig
testified Thursday that he told three people about a confidential
investigation but said he did so because he thought the operation was
intentionally steered away from a sergeant accused of drug dealing.

Craig, speaking during the first day of his arbitration hearing, said
police Chief Goliath Davis III limited law enforcement techniques to
investigate Donnie Williams, who has since been promoted to lieutenant.

"I think he told his staff that he did not believe it was true," said
Craig, 30, fired in July for revealing confidential information. "I think
the direction was, "Let's make sure he gets cleared.' "

Davis did not attend Thursday's eight-hour hearing.

Williams, 45, also did not testify.

The hearing continues at 9 a.m. today.

In the coming months, the Miami arbitrator, Martin A. Soll, will decide
whether Craig gets his job back.

Craig said he complained about the investigative methods to the city's lead
drug detective on the Williams case.

"That's the way the chief wants it," Craig said he was told.

Craig said he talked about his concerns over the Williams investigation
with Officer Richard Kenyon, a boyhood friend; his former supervisor,
Officer Roy Olsen; and union lawyer Bill LauBach.

On Thursday, Craig's account of the police chief limiting the investigation
was disputed by other St. Petersburg drug detectives and agents with the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The city's drug detectives testified that Davis did not place restrictions
on investigating Williams. "There were no limitations outside of the fact
that we would maintain strict confidentiality," said Assistant Chief Bill
Proffitt, who formerly led the vice and narcotics unit.

The attorney representing the city, Thomas M. Gonzalez, said Craig released
sensitive information and compromised officer safety.

"If, in fact, Lt. Williams was dirty, it's doubtful this city will ever be
able to do anything about it," Gonzalez said.

The allegations involving Williams were brought forward by a confidential
informer in the summer of 1998.

Craig, working as a vice and narcotics detective at the time, attended a
meeting with the informer and a St. Petersburg drug detective at the Tampa
office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to Thursday's testimony, the informer said he saw Williams make
transactions at a St. Petersburg bar. The bar and a bar employee are
targets in a federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation.

An undercover DEA agent testified that the confidential informer's account
of Williams was "sketchy."

During questioning by union lawyer LauBach, the DEA agent said the informer
saw the bar employee give Williams "small sandwich-size" plastic bags
containing a white substance.

To Craig, that information should have been enough to begin an
investigation that would include using secretly mounted cameras, trash
searches, the confidential informer buying or selling drugs and spying on
Williams at more than one location.

Instead, Craig said, the city had Williams under surveillance only six or
seven times, all at the same bar.