TO TELL THE TRUTH

It Is, At A Minimum, What We Expect Of Our Law Enforcement Officers. An FHP
Trooper's Testimony That He And Other Officers Routinely Misled Courts On
Arrest Reports Should Prompt A Federal Investigation.

Few things are as sacrosanct as the integrity of the courts. The testimony
of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that he and other law officers misled
the courts on arrest reports as a matter of routine raises the alarming
prospect that an untold number of defendants were denied their rights to
lawful arrest and prosecution. The U.S. Justice Department should follow the
example of state prosecutors and examine whether the trooper's allegations
are valid and constitute evidence of systematic misconduct in the handling
of criminal cases.

Trooper Douglas Strickland testified that troopers routinely falsified
information on sworn arrest affidavits in an effort to conceal the identity
of FBI informants and to protect ongoing federal investigations. According
to Strickland, two-trooper drug interdiction teams used "ruse stops" to
search the cars of drug suspects, fully knowing the car carried drugs and
had been tampered with by federal agents. Troopers withheld details of
federal involvement, and authorities suggest they did so at the request of
FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Defense attorneys blasted the tactics as "outrageous government conduct" and
have called for a wide-ranging federal investigation. U.S. Magistrate
Elizabeth Jenkins signaled her displeasure last month: "To conceal the true
facts surrounding an arrest in an affidavit submitted to a judicial officer
is reprehensible." Polk County prosecutors, upset that they and the state
courts were lied to, dropped charges stemming from an arrest Strickland made
in a 1998 drug conspiracy case.

Police and prosecutors already have the law on their side when it comes to
undercover operations and making legitimate arrests. By falsifying the
record of their own behavior, law enforcement agencies violate the rights
they're sworn to uphold and jeopardize the outcome of criminal cases. The
irony is that prosecutions tainted by such tactics could be a ticket for
criminals to return to the streets.

Polk County prosecutors called Strickland back for more questioning, in what
appears to be a good-faith effort to measure the validity and weight of his
earlier testimony. The U.S. Attorney's Office should initiate the same
effort; federal authorities have failed to respond to the substance of
Strickland's earlier testimony.

The Florida Highway Patrol, meanwhile, should investigate the practices of
troopers who work with federal authorities on drug interdiction schemes. If
the agency is unwilling, Polk prosecutors should seek broad authority to do
the job themselves. If ruse stops and the use of false affidavits are so
routine, the patrol has either a misguided policy or a management breakdown
- -- or both.