TROOPER: PARTIAL TRUTH HELPS FBI

TAMPA - A state trooper testifies he and other officers try to protect
federal agents by misleading state judges.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers have intentionally misled state judges by
routinely telling them partial stories and filing incomplete reports in
federal drug cases, according to a trooper's testimony Tuesday.

Members of the highway patrol's elite drug interdiction teams do that to
conceal the involvement of the FBI in traffic-related drug arrests, said
Trooper Douglas Strickland. The goal, he said, is to protect undercover
agents and informants.

But defense lawyers argued the government's practice tramples on the rights
of citizens and a veteran state prosecutor said it could jeopardize drug
prosecutions.

Now a federal magistrate must decide whether law enforcement agents went too
far after setting up a suspected drug trafficker on a stretch of Interstate
4 in Polk County last year. After the arrest, Strickland filed a report that
gave the impression he stopped to help a disabled motorist on May 19, 1998,
and grew suspicious because the man refused his help.

In fact, Strickland and his partner were helping FBI agents who had rigged
Michael Flynn's car with a remote shut-off switch to simulate a breakdown.
The troopers knew there were 220 pounds of cocaine in Flynn's trunk and
needed a reason to search the car.

After arresting Flynn, the trooper told a Polk County judge in a sworn
affidavit and by telephonen that he and his partner became suspicious
because Flynn grew agitated when asked to open his trunk.

The judge, unaware of the entire story, set Flynn's bail at $1 million,
effectively preventing him from being released. The "ruse stop" was intended
to keep Flynn from realizing he was a target of an FBI probe, Strickland
said. "It was an ongoing investigation," he said. "There were undercover
agents still in Colombia who needed to be protected and there were
confidential informants who also needed to be protected."

But the discovery of the incomplete affidavit led to dismissal of the
charges in state court. Now the defendants want U.S. magistrate Elizabeth
Jenkins to rule that law enforcement engaged in "outrageous conduct" and
keep them from prosecuting the case in federal court.

A federal grand jury indicted Flynn and two other men, Norman Dupont and
Dewey Davis, in April on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to
distribute cocaine. The charges stem from the same traffic stop considered
in the state court. If convicted, they face a minimum prison term of 10
years and a maximum of life.

During Tuesday's four-hour hearing, Assistant State Attorney Brad Copley,
who handles most of Polk's major drug trafficking cases, testified that he
became concerned when he read a newspaper account of the drug bust.

"I read the article and knew it wasn't the truth. I knew the engine didn't
just quit on its own. I knew there had to be a kill switch."

Copley contacted the troopers, who acknowledged they were cooperating with
the FBI. That's when Copley learned the affidavit filed with the court was
"far from" the whole truth.

Agents don't have to give all the facts in an arrest affidavit, Copley said,
"but it was essentially false except for the fact that the defendants were
in possession of 220 pounds of cocaine."

After conferring with State Attorney Jerry Hill, Copley declined to
prosecute. In an unusually harsh court filing, he said his office needs to
rely upon officers to tell the truth and accused the FBI of telling the
troopers to lie.

The state attorney's office later clarified its position, issuing a news
release stating the affidavit was the result of miscommunication between the
FBI and the highway patrol.

But Copley said Tuesday he stands by his original statements.

After hearing from both Strickland and Copley, defense attorneys argued that
the troopers' conduct warranted dismissal of the indictment.

"What we have here, I believe, is a pervasive practice by law enforcement
agents to subvert the truth," attorney John May said. "You have a situation
where the defendants may never know they have a basis for a motion to
suppress the evidence."

May said he came to court Tuesday thinking this was a one-time incident and
was alarmed by Strickland's acknowledgment that the practice was routine.

"This courthouse is where it has got to end," he said. "This courthouse is
where the civil liberties of our country have to be protected."

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Preston argued, however, that the problems
with the affidavit were not enough to warrant a dismissal of the indictment.

"I think the trooper made a big mistake when he completed the affidavit,"
Preston said, but that doesn't outweigh the fact that the defendants broke
the law.

"These defendants were engaged in criminal activity from the early stages of
this investigation," he said.

Officials with the FBI, the highway patrol and the U.S. Attorney's Office
declined comment after the hearing. Jenkins did not say when she would rule.