D.C. OFFICER'S TIES TO GANG OUTLINED

Prosecutors Say Nine-Year Veteran Revealed 'Critical' Information

D.C. police Officer Andrew James McGill Jr., who is accused of having been
part of a drug gang that operated in the District for a decade, provided
"critical law enforcement information" to the alleged ringleader of the
organization and other conspirators, a federal prosecutor said yesterday in
U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.

When fellow D.C. police officers began to suspect that McGill was involved
in illicit activity in 1997, he threatened two fellow officers, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Sandra Wilkinson said at a detention hearing. McGill told one
officer he could have him "offed," Wilkinson said. To another, he allegedly
said, "Are you still around? I thought you'd be gone by now."

Wilkinson provided the first details of the government's case against
McGill, portraying him as a threat to the community. She argued that McGill
should remain incarcerated until he and the eight others charged in the
indictment go to trial, now scheduled for March 14.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Jillyn K. Schulze ruled that the government had
failed to show that McGill was a danger and instead ordered him released
under the supervision of the federal pretrial services department. Schulze
also ordered McGill to stay in his wife's home until trial, except for
meetings with his attorney and medical appointments.

McGill, 29, was arrested Thursday afternoon as he arrived for work at the
5th Police District in Northeast Washington and is now on administrative
leave. He will be subject to 24-hour-a-day electronic monitoring at his
home and must undergo a drug evaluation and, if necessary, drug treatment,
the judge ruled.

His attorney, Robert W. Mance, argued that McGill should be released,
noting that the officer is not charged with selling drugs and that nothing
came of the alleged threats. But Wilkinson countered that McGill is "no
different from the other people charged in the case, and in some ways much
worse, because he abused his public trust" as a police officer.

Schulze, in explaining her decision to release McGill, said the charges
against him are "very serious" but also noted that the evidence prosecutors
have presented is circumstantial.

A federal grand jury in Greenbelt recently indicted McGill, alleging that
he is part of a drug network that trafficked in heroin, cocaine, crack
cocaine and marijuana from 1989 to last year. Much of the alleged dealing
occurred in the unit block of Forrester Street in Southwest Washington, a
notorious and violent marijuana and crack market in the mid-1990s. Because
of the sensitive nature of the investigation, which is ongoing, many of the
documents in the case are sealed under a federal court order.

At yesterday's hearing, Wilkinson provided some details of the case
prosecutors are building against McGill, who joined the police department
in 1990. Information has come from interviews prosecutors have conducted
with McGill and from grand jury testimony provided by witnesses, among them
several D.C. police officers, Wilkinson said.

In early 1990, Wilkinson said, McGill met and became close friends with the
alleged ringleader of the drug gang, Erskine "Pee Wee" Hartwell, who is now
32. By the mid-1990s, McGill was assigned to the 7th Police District, which
includes Forrester Street, the block then controlled by the alleged drug
gang. At one point, McGill was even assigned to work undercover on
Forrester Street. When Hartwell looked out the window of the home he used
as a base to sell drugs, he laughed at McGill policing his street,
Wilkinson said.

In 1996 or perhaps earlier, McGill "stepped over the line" and began giving
Hartwell and his drug network information about police activity, Wilkinson
said, without providing specifics. McGill eventually owned a cellular
telephone used by the drug gang, one that could not be monitored
electronically, the prosecutor said.

In 1996, Hartwell was convicted of reckless endangerment in connection with
the wounding a year earlier of Ronnell Wright. According to Prince George's
Circuit Court records, Wright told police that he believed Hartwell shot
him because Hartwell thought Wright had provided information to police
about a stolen-auto ring and drug gang both were then involved with.

In January 1997, Prince George's Circuit Court Judge William B. Spellbring
Jr. sentenced Hartwell to one year in the county correctional facility.
McGill visited Hartwell while he was locked up, Wilkinson said.

In 1991, Hartwell pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to one count of
carrying a deadly weapon and one count of simple assault, according to
court records.