CIVIL SUIT OVER A BOTCHED IRS RAID IN VIRGINIA IS ALLOWED TO GO TO TRIAL

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has decided to allow a civil suit over a
botched Internal Revenue Service raid to go to trial against an IRS agent
and a beverage agent for the state of Virginia.

In the 1994 raid, armed state and federal agents spent the better part of a
day removing files, computers and cash registers from two Norfolk-area
restaurants, and also searched the homes of an owner and a manager. But the
government never found any crimes for which to prosecute the restaurants,
both called The Jewish Mother.

The raids had been prompted largely by a former bookkeeper at the
restaurants who told authorities of cocaine dealing and fake books at the
restaurants. She had just been fired for suspicion of embezzlement. She
later was convicted of stealing from the company and served time in prison.

The Jewish Mother's owners and the manager and his family filed suit in
1996, saying their civil rights had been violated.

After a series of hearings late last year, U.S. District Judge Robert
Doumar in Norfolk has decided that there was sufficient evidence to allow
the case to go forward to trial against one IRS agent, Carol Willman, and
one state beverage agent, Bob Dunford. Both supervised the investigation.

In an order late last week allowing the trial to proceed, Judge Doumar
criticized the government agencies for allowing the investigation to spin
out of control in a matter of days after the bookkeeper came forward with
her allegations.

"In the opinion of the court, it appears that the insistence by a few
individuals that some of the plaintiffs were criminals overcame calm
analysis and good sense," Judge Doumar wrote. "This case is the paramount
example of the way people in groups will commit acts that no individual
would consider alone." He also cited a "mob rule" environment at a state
office that served as the headquarters for the investigation.

The judge reserved his worst criticism for the agency, the Virginia
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which initiated the probe. "A
jury could find that the ABC masterminded the entire operation," he wrote.

At the same time, Judge Doumar dismissed claims against another IRS agent
and two state ABC agents.

The ruling leaves the case considerably reduced from its original scope. At
one time, almost two dozen federal and state agents were named individually
in the lawsuit, as well as the IRS itself and several other state and local
government agencies. Many of the case's most shocking details -- including
an allegation that male agents at gunpoint forced the teenage daughter of
one of the plaintiffs and two of her friends to get dressed in front of
them -- also have receded into the background as apparent discrepancies
have emerged in witness accounts.

Those details figured prominently in Senate hearings in the spring of 1998
that led to passage of a sweeping IRS reform bill.

Now the case turns on more mundane matters. As for Ms. Willman, the
plaintiffs are expected to contend that in the application for the search
warrant, she incorrectly stated that she had investigated certain
beverage-sales records that the restaurants filed with the state. A second
issue is whether the state agent, Mr. Dunford, failed to perform an
adequate analysis of the sales records.

A lawyer representing Ms. Willman, the IRS defendant, declined to comment.
A spokesman for the Virginia attorney general, David B. Botkins, said Mr.
Dunford "acted in good faith, and if we do not appeal we could go to trial
and defend him appropriately."

A lawyer for the plaintiffs couldn't be reached. An IRS critic who is
writing a book about the case, Shelley Davis, said the ruling shows Judge
Doumar "understands what happened. It was a piling on."