CASE'S EFFECT MAY BE 'HUGE'

TAMPA - A trooper's revelation that he and others have filed misleading
drug arrest reports could have "huge" ramifications.

A trooper's admission that Florida Highway Patrol teams have filed
misleading and incomplete arrest reports has outraged lawyers and led at
least one to push for an investigation in Washington.

Lawyers in three counties said on Wednesday they plan to re-examine the
files of clients serving long federal prison terms and may ask the court to
allow them to reopen the otherwise stagnant cases.

"It didn't smell right from the very beginning," said Jack T. Edmund of
Bartow, who represented a Baltimore man busted for cocaine after being
pulled over by two troopers in 1995.

"I knew [the troopers] had a thing going, no questions about it, but it's
hard to make a judge believe that."

The testimony that angered defense lawyers came in U.S. District Court in
Tampa on Tuesday during a four-hour hearing that was supposed to examine
allegations of law enforcement misconduct in a single cocaine case.

Trooper Douglas Strickland said he and his colleagues routinely misled
judges and filed incomplete reports in drug cases to protect informants and
investigations and to prevent defendants from discovering they are FBI
targets.

"No one in their wildest dreams thought the trooper was going to say this,"
said Mark NeJame, one of the lawyers involved in the hearing.

NeJame hopes to mobilize lawyers statewide and said Wednesday that he plans
to urge U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to look into the allegations.

"We are talking about hundreds and maybe thousands of cases across
Florida," he said.

Tuesday's hearing stemmed from the case of Orlando motorist Michael Flynn.
Jailed in May 1998, Flynn won a temporary reprieve when Polk County
prosecutor Brad Copley determined that Strickland's affidavit describing
Flynn's arrest was "essentially false." Copley declined to prosecute,
saying the two judges who set Flynn's $1 million bail were denied the
complete truth.

The state prosecutor's decision, however, did not prevent federal
authorities from charging Flynn. In April, a grand jury indicted Flynn and
two others, Norman Dupont and Dewey Davis, on federal charges of conspiracy
and possession with intent to distribute 220 pounds of cocaine. If
convicted, they could face prison terms ranging from 10 years to life.

NeJame, Flynn's other attorneys and attorneys for Flynn's codefendants want
U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Jenkins to dismiss the indictment because of the
"outrageous" conduct.

Strickland said he was trying "to establish independent probable cause"
when he gave the impression that he stopped to help Flynn with his disabled
Lincoln Town Car on Interstate 4. The trooper wrote that he and his partner
grew suspicious because Flynn refused to open his trunk.

In fact, Strickland and his partner were cooperating with FBI agents who
had rigged Flynn's engine so that it could be shut down by remote control.
The troopers had watched the undercover agents load the cocaine stash into
Flynn's trunk earlier that day.

Strickland testified he has filed similar affidavits in at least three
other cases and knows of perhaps five other officers who have conducted
identical "ruse stops."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Preston acknowledged Tuesday that the trooper
made "a big mistake" by filing the incomplete report, but argued the
conduct doesn't change the fact that Flynn and his co-defendants broke the
law.

Carl Lida, Dupont's attorney, told Jenkins the ends do not justify the
means. "This strikes at the heart of the system," he said.

Representatives of the FBI, the Highway Patrol and the U.S. attorney's
office declined to comment, saying the case was pending. But none of the
agencies has taken action against Strickland. Copley said Tuesday he does
not plan to file perjury charges because the FBI may be responsible for the
trooper's conduct.

Jenkins did not indicate when she will rule. The attorneys have asked for
time to subpoena highway patrol records so they can determine how
widespread the conduct might be.

Other attorneys, meanwhile, said the trooper's misrepresentation is
particularly troubling because the federal system gives lawyers only
limited opportunities to question officers before trial.

"This prohibits a defendant from exploring whether or not there is a
legitimate basis for the traffic stop, never mind the issue of whether the
officer is a liar," said Tampa lawyer Matt Farmer.

Farmer plans to review a case involving a man who was pulled over by a
trooper on the Sunshine Skyway. The officer said he discovered cocaine and
weapons after stopping the car because it had improperly tinted windows.

The trouble with looking at old cases, however, is that the reports - by
themselves - are unlikely to show there is more to the story.

"You could read it over and over," said former federal prosecutor John
Fitzgibbons, "and on its face, it wouldn't tell you one damn thing."

Fitzgibbons and other lawyers said there are several legitimate ways
troopers can protect agents, including informing the judge of the FBI's
involvement outside the presence of the suspect and his attorneys, or
asking prosecutors to file the court papers under seal.

"There is absolutely no reason, no justification on this Earth, for anyone
to lie to a judge," Fitzgibbons said.

Former narcotics prosecutor Daniel Fernandez predicted the ramifications of
Strickland's testimony will be "huge."

"How huge? Take the number of stops made by troopers in the last year and
see how many seizures they've done," he said. "That's how many filings you
will see."