PROSECUTORS WITHHELD FACTS ON INFORMANT

TAMPA - Hillsborough prosecutors received three separate warnings in
November about a federal informant who had helped set up drug cases they
were pursuing, The Tampa Tribune learned Wednesday.

The informant, Andrew Chambers Jr., has made millions from his shadowy work
but also has lied on the witness stand.

By law, Chambers' credibility problems should have been disclosed to defense
attorneys. But lawyers in at least two of the three cases say the state
attorney's office revealed nothing.

``That's Prosecution 101,'' said Mark Ober, who represents a defendant in
one of the cases. ``Their obligation is not to seek a conviction on trickery
or deceit, but to do justice. The system fails if prosecutors withhold
information of that nature.''

Ober's client, Harold Laudrum Jr. of Lakeland, is scheduled to stand trial
Monday.

Laudrum and his stepson, Dahrol Glen James, also of Lakeland, were arrested
outside the Best Buy store on Dale Mabry Highway on Dec. 14, 1998, accused
of paying undercover officers $6,000 for more than 400 grams of cocaine.

The alleged deal was arranged by Chambers.

Ober knew that, but he was not aware of Chambers' checkered past until he
read news accounts this week.

Those accounts revealed that Chambers, a 42-year-old career informant who
has earned between $2 million and $4 million helping local and federal
agents set up suspected dealers, has been arrested at least seven times over
the past 10 years. Most of the charges were dismissed, but he was convicted
in 1995 after police in Denver said he solicited an undercover officer
posing as a prostitute and falsely claimed he was a DEA agent.

When Chambers testified in subsequent drug trials, he denied having a
criminal history and lied about his education, records show. Two federal
appeals courts later ruled he committed perjury.

Records obtained by the Tribune on Wednesday show that Chambers lied under
oath again, this time in Tampa, as recently as April. During a deposition in
the Laudrum case, Chambers told Assistant Public Defender Paula Adams he was
charged with a crime once, referring to the 1995 solicitation arrest.

``Is that the only time you've ever been in trouble?'' Adams asked.

``Yes,'' Chambers said, according to a transcript.

Adams could not be reached Wednesday. Ober took over Laudrum's defense in
August after the public defender's office discovered a possible conflict of
interest.

Laudrum, 41, faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years if convicted. Ober plans
to ask a judge today for permission to question Chambers before trial.

The closest local prosecutors came to revealing Chambers' problems, he said,
was during a quick conversation in December. Ober approached then- Assistant
State Attorney Bryant Camareno to discuss the possibility of a plea bargain,
he said. He asked about Chambers' viability as a witness, Ober recalled
Wednesday, and Camareno replied, ``We don't even want to get into that.''

``Prosecutors were absolutely obligated to provide me with that
information,'' Ober said.

Camareno, who has since been hired by the U.S. attorney's office, did not
return a phone call seeking comment.

The letters about Chambers were sent to the state attorney's office Nov. 10
by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for which Chambers has worked
for 15 years.

The letters, released Wednesday, and the deposition raise fresh questions
about what Hillsborough prosecutors knew about Chambers and when they knew
it. When asked Tuesday about another case involving the informant, the state
attorney's office said it had no record of any DEA warnings.

But Wednesday night, the office reversed itself.

Assistant State Attorney Eric Myers, who oversees the office's drug
prosecutors, said he has since determined the office received all three
letters. The letters told the prosecutors handling three separate drug cases
that the DEA had recently learned of ``an issue regarding previous sworn
testimony'' by Chambers.

The office received a fourth letter Wednesday morning notifying it of
Chambers' involvement in yet another case.

The first three letters were sent to individual assistant prosecutors, who
did not notify him of them, Myers said. One prosecutor followed up with a
letter to DEA lawyers seeking more information but didn't get a response,
Myers said.

Myers said he will begin reviewing files to see what role Chambers played in
the cases.

``We're not going to knowingly put on a witness who is not credible,'' he
said.

The state attorney's office will also ``try to communicate a little better
with the DEA so we have more oversight,'' Myers said.

Controversy has been raging for months in other jurisdictions over Chambers'
credibility. DEA spokesman Terry Parham on Wednesday blamed the situation
partly on internal communication problems and said the agency is considering
policy changes.

``We didn't have a system in place for documenting when a confidential
source has not been truthful on the stand,'' he said.

As a result, not all of the DEA's regional offices knew about Chambers'
history, Parham said.

Under the proposed changes, any informant accused of perjury must be
``deactivated,'' Parham said. Exceptions could be made, but only with the
approval of DEA headquarters.

As the controversy over Chambers spread, the DEA ordered its agents in
September to get a prosecutor's permission before using Chambers in any new
investigations.

The agency went a step further last week, suspending Chambers altogether.

The pending Hillsborough cases all involve defendants arrested before
September.

Staff writer Ladale Lloyd contributed to this report.