EX-CHIEF'S DEFENSE ATTACKS TESTIMONY

LAFAYETTE -- The attorney for the former Duson police chief tried Monday to
discredit the statement his client gave to investigators about his
involvement with a local drug organization.

Former Police Chief Tom Deville talked to investigators at his home twice
in May 1999 about an alleged drug-run he made to Houston for Lanier "Pop"
Cherry.

Fourteen others have pleaded guilty in the multi-agency drug investigation
dubbed "Sweet Dixie." Deville has pleaded innocent.

He is facing federal charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to
distribute marijuana, interstate travel in aid of a racketeering crime and
carrying a gun during a drug crime.

He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Months after law enforcement raided Cherry's Duson home, investigators paid
a visit to Deville.

State Police investigator Dirk Bergeron testified Monday that he and FBI
agent Steve Richardson sat with Deville at his kitchen table.

Deville told the men he wanted to cooperate. They asked him to write a
statement, but when he told them he didn't read or write too well, they
volunteered to write the statement for him and read it back.

Deville told the men he thought he was picking up alfalfa pellets to be
used in Cherry's horse business, and Cherry had paid him $1,000 to make the
trip to Houston.

Bergeron said Monday that he thought it was strange for Cherry to pay
$1,000 for the delivery of alfalfa pellets when 50 pound bags could be
bought in Lafayette for less than $9.

Bergeron was the only witness to testify Monday.

Deville's attorney, Daniel Stanford, pointed out during cross-examination
that the investigators did not include Deville's comments about alfalfa
pellets in his statement.

Deville told the investigators that Lanier had approached him before about
making a run. When Cherry told him the run was drug-related, Deville said
he refused, Bergeron testified.

When Cherry asked a few days later, he told Deville the run was "dry."
Deville, strapped for cash after just losing a re-election bid, took the
job and made the Nov. 17 trip to Houston in his wife's "hot shot" truck --
which they lease out as a delivery truck to the oil industry, Bergeron said.

During their interview with Deville -- on May 9 and May 11, 1999 --
investigators questioned why he didn't fill out an invoice for the trip,
unless he knew it was illegal.

"Basically, he knew that we knew that he was lying," Bergeron told Stanford.

Bergeron said he viewed the statement as an admission of guilt. Stanford
pointed out Deville's statement never specifically admits to transporting pot.

"There's a bunch of jumbled-up innuendoes in this statement," he told Bergeron.

Deville told police the second day they went to his house that he never
worried about meeting with Cherry's Houston supplier, Avel "Fat Boy"
Garcia, because he carried his service weapon with him.

He also told investigators they need not make a scene when they arrested
him, Bergeron said.

"Just call me, and I'll come in," Bergeron said Deville told them. "You
don't need to get the SWAT team out here."

Stanford also played for the jury the videotaped interview Richardson and
Bergeron conducted with Carlton Boutte, a man who lived at Cherry's home
and who admitted to making two drug runs to Texas.

Boutte testified earlier in the trial that he overheard the conversation
between Cherry and Deville in which the men discussed Deville's run to pick
up marijuana in Houston. The discussion occurred a few days before the trip
Deville made on Nov. 17.

Boutte talked to the investigators Nov. 22, hours after authorities raided
Cherry's home.

Bergeron at the beginning of the interview stressed to Boutte the
importance of telling the truth.

"We don't want anybody to ever come back and challenge your credibility,
because then it would hurt you," Bergeron said.

Boutte goes on to give details his involvement, but does not mention
Deville's name.

Three times investigators asked Boutte if he knew of anyone else who had
made drug runs for Cherry.

Boutte also admitted, after what Bergeron described as "pulling teeth,"
that the drugs police found underneath his bed were not only for his heart
condition. He admitted he sold the pills for a large profit.

In earlier testimony Boutte said the pills were for personal use.

The current Duson Police Chief, Roland Lewis was mentioned in testimony Monday.

Bergeron testified that when he first questioned Lewis about Cherry, Lewis
denied knowing him.

Government informant Mack Keeton testified Friday that Lewis and other
Duson officers hung around outside Cherry's house one night talking cars
for two hours while people swarmed the house to buy drugs.

"It looked like McDonald's," Keeton said. "People were coming in and out of
the house -- in and out -- like they were getting hamburgers."

Bergeron testified Monday that Lewis eventually admitted to knowing Cherry
but denied he knew of his illegal activities.

"As far as he knew, (Cherry's) sole occupation was horse training,"
Bergeron said.