ANOTHER TROOPER AFFIDAVIT EXPOSED

TAMPA - FBI drug arrests are not the only ones tainted by false affidavits.
A city police and DEA case may be.

The trooper who jeopardized a major cocaine case last year by misleading a
judge about the FBI's behind-the-scenes involvement did much the same thing
while working with Tampa police and the Drug Enforcement Administration as
early as 1995.

In July of that year, The Tampa Tribune has learned, Florida Highway Patrol
Trooper Douglas Strickland signed an affidavit that falsely characterized
the circumstances behind the cocaine arrest of a Baltimore man.

Orin Larue Johnson, 33, chose to plead guilty rather than stand trial and
is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Johnson was arrested after troopers stopped the minivan he was riding in on
Interstate 4. At the time, Strickland filed an affidavit saying he pulled
the van over because it was speeding.

``I noticed a black mini-van with a silver band around the bottom which
seemed to be traveling above the posted speed limit of 65,'' Strickland said.

He clocked the van at 72 mph, he said. While he spoke with the driver and
passengers, his partner, Bruce Hutcheson, walked a drug-sniffing canine
around the van. The dog began scratching the back license tag, Strickland
said.

``Trooper Hutcheson looked at the undercarriage of the car and found what
appeared to be a compartment under the front seats,'' according to the
affidavit. Hutcheson ``slid [a metal panel] back to discover'' 44 pounds of
cocaine.

THE AFFIDAVIT, used to help a state judge set bail at $500,000, did not
reveal that Strickland had been working with Tampa police and DEA agents in
a reverse drug sting. Nor did it say that the trooper had watched
undercover officers load the cocaine beneath the seat that day.

The facts in Johnson's case are nearly identical to those revealed in an
unrelated case two weeks ago involving an Orlando man, Michael Flynn, and
two associates. Their lawyers called Strickland to the stand to support
their argument that the charges should be dismissed.

Strickland stunned the courtroom by testifying that he and his colleagues
have routinely filed incomplete and misleading arrest affidavits when
working with federal agents.

Strickland said the practice is designed to protect agents and informants
who continue to work undercover.

Flynn, 40, was jailed in May 1998 after Strickland stopped to help him with
his car, which had stalled on I-4. Strickland told the judge he ``grew
suspicious of [Flynn] due to his unwillingness to open the trunk.''

In fact, as in the Johnson case, Strickland was suspicious long before he
encountered Flynn on the highway. He knew the car had not broken down. It
had been intentionally disabled by FBI agents using a remote- controlled
device. Strickland also knew there was cocaine in the car because he
watched undercover agents put the 220-pound stash in the trunk hours earlier.

The misrepresentations in Flynn's case so angered Assistant State Attorney
Brad Copley that he refused to prosecute. But federal authorities took the
case to a grand jury.

Flynn and the other two defendants were indicted in April on charges of
conspiracy and possession with intent to deliver cocaine. If convicted,
they face 10 years to life behind bars.

At the Dec. 7 hearing, prosecutors argued that the trooper's admission did
not change the fact that Flynn was caught carrying cocaine.

U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Jenkins ruled that the law did not allow her to
throw out the charges, but she had sharp words about the practice.

``To conceal the true facts surrounding an arrest in an affidavit submitted
to a judicial officer is reprehensible,'' she said.

It was unclear Monday what the Tribune's discovery might mean for Johnson.
His attorney, Jack Edmund, did not return several phone calls.

Before Johnson pleaded guilty, Edmund tried to keep the cocaine evidence
from being admitted at trial.

IN RESPONSE, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Lawson filed court papers
revealing that Tampa police and the DEA were behind the arrest. Lawson
argued that the trooper had probable cause to stop the van because he knew
firsthand that it contained cocaine.

Edmund did not attack the false affidavit before Johnson's guilty plea, and
it's unclear whether he knew about it. Had he known, he might have been
able to raise doubts about the trooper's credibility and the DEA's
culpability.

Federal agents deny that they instructed Strickland to lie under oath.

``At no time did we - or would we - suggest that anyone testify to anything
other than the truth,'' DEA spokesman and Special Agent Brent Eaton said
Monday.

While it is sometimes desirable to conceal details of an investigation, it
is never acceptable to give false testimony, Eaton said.

``When it comes to going to court to testify, you have to do what you have
to do.'' Tampa police declined to comment until they could review the case.