EX-AGENT FACES RETRIAL ON DEADLOCKED CHARGES

Courts: The San Juan Capistrano resident was acquitted of drug and
money-laundering charges.

Los Angeles-Federal prosecutors plan to retry a former state drug
agent after one jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on four
charges against him in connection with the disappearance of 650 pounds
of cocaine.

A jury convicted Richard Wayne Parker, 44, on one count of tax evasion
June 25, but deadlocked on four charges that included burglary and
possession of drugs with intent to sell. He was acquitted on two drug
charges and one money-laudering charge.

"The counts that are remaining are the most serious charges in this
case," Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S.Attorney's office, said
Tuesday. "They are substantive, serious drug-trafficking
allegations."

Parker has been held without bail since his arrest about a year ago.
U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder on Tuesday denied a new request
for bail for the upcoming trial, Mrozek said.

In the first trial, prosecutors said Parker, a former agent with the
California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, stole 650 pounds of
cocaine. Officers who arrested Parker at his San Juan Capistrano home
said they found $600,000 in cash in some of the eight vehicles he had
recently bought.

Parker was accused of stealing the cocaine from the bureau's Riverside
office on the Fourth of July weekend in 1997, making the theft look
like a forced burglary. The prosecution said he sold the cocaine
through several "conduits."

A jury found two of Parker's co-defendants not guilty of cocaine
trafficking charges.

No sentencing date has been set on the tax evasion charge because of
the pending trial. The retrial has been tentatively scheduled Aug. 10.