JUDGE OVERTURNS DRUG CONVICTION

Karen o'Dell rubbed her hands as she sat in court in Manatee County on
Tuesday morning, waiting for an extended nightmare to end.

She didn't have to wait long. In less than two minutes, a circuit
judge overturned o'Dell's convictions, wiping away a legal mess she
said had wrecked her life.

Arrested on what she says was planted evidence, O'Dell has a criminal
record and has served a year of probation for crimes she swears she
didn't commit.

"It's been two years, and it's still affecting me," said o'Dell,
speaking publicly for the first time. "You don't trust anybody."

Former members of the Manatee County Sheriff's Delta Division,
including Paul D. Maass and Thomas Clayton Wooten, previously admitted
in federal court that they planted evidence in some cases, then lied
about it when the cases went to court.

The admissions by the former deputies came during an investigation
into criminal activity by some members of the Delta Division.

O'Dell, 39, of Bradenton served a year of probation and 50 hours of
community service for convictions of battery, purchase of cocaine and
destruction of evidence. When she was arrested in November 1997,
o'Dell had no criminal record. She pleaded no contest in March 1998.
Both the prosecutors and her defense lawyer said o'Dell probably would
have served jail time if she had gone to trial.

Circuit Judge Janette Dunnigan ruled Tuesday that planted evidence and
perjured testimony had been used against o'Dell.

"I never even had a traffic ticket before this," o'Dell
said.

Almost two years after pleading no contest, o'Dell is still nervous
about police and about publicity. After the hearing, she ducked and
dodged cameras. Throughout a short interview, she frequently looked
over her shoulder and rubbed her hands.

"It's like it happened yesterday," o'Dell said. "I can still remember
everything."

After the allegations against the Delta agents surfaced in the summer
of 1998, prosecutors dropped more than 70 cases against 67 defendants.
The prosecutors did not oppose o'Dell's request to overturn her conviction.

O'Dell's case is the archetype of nearly all cases of planted evidence
and wrongful conviction stemming from the Delta Division's actions.

Agents of the street-level anti-drug unit stopped o'Dell's truck as
she drove home from her job with a construction company in November
1997.

Former Sgt. Wayne Wyckoff accused o'Dell of hitting him with the
truck, according to court records. During the stop, other agents
searched the truck and found nothing.

About an hour later, Wyckoff, Wooten, Maass and others went to
o'Dell's home in Bradenton. While Wyckoff and other agents kept o'Dell
at the door, Wooten and Maass went into o'Dell's garage and came out
with a piece of rock cocaine that they claimed was in the back of
o'Dell's truck, according to court records.

O'Dell said the rock was planted, but she didn't press a complaint
with the Sheriff's Office. Her attorney said she saw no point.

"At the time, it was just Karen's word that she had been framed
against three or four healthy, upstanding young police officers," said
o'Dell's attorney, Mark Lipinski of Bradenton. "We didn't think at the
time that she would be believed."

The Sheriff's Office seized o'Dell's truck, saying it was used in drug
activity. For about a year, o'Dell had to arrange rides to and from
work until her truck was returned. With the help of friends, o'Dell
convinced her employer not to fire her.

She didn't try to clear her name until Maass, 26, pleaded guilty to a
variety of civil rights and drug charges.

Wyckoff, 37, has been implicated in wrongdoing connected with o'Dell's
arrest. He pleaded guilty to charges unrelated to o'Dell's case, and
he and Maass are awaiting sentencing on April 24.

Wooten, 29, has been implicated in setting up o'Dell. He is awaiting
sentencing on charges unrelated to o'Dell's arrest.

"It makes me sick, thinking about it," o'Dell said. "I'm a nervous
person anyway."

O'Dell wants the two-year saga to end. She's not sure whether she will
sue the Sheriff's Office. Dunnigan's ruling overturns the conviction,
but an official, public record of the arrest still exists.

O'Dell said she will try to have those public records
deleted.

O'Dell is the second woman to have her conviction in a Delta case
dismissed. This month Dunnigan cleared Sarah L. Smith, who served 18
months of house arrest and jail time for possession of crack cocaine.

Smith, 21, of Sarasota filed a claim for $5 million against the
Sheriff's Office last week for malicious prosecution and false arrest.
She claimed that the arrest destroyed her life.