2 ACQUITTED IN AGENT'S DRUG-TRAFFICKING TRIAL

Courts: Still unresolved are four charges against a narcotics officer
accused of stealing 650 pounds of cocaine.

Los Angeles-A jury acquitted two co-defendants in the cocaine-trafficking
trial of a former drug agent Friday and reached verdicts on four of eight
charges against the agent.

The judge sealed the verdicts reached in the case against former state
Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement officer Richard Wayne Parker, who is accused
of stealing 650 pounds of cocaine. The judge ordered jurors to return Monday
to continue deliberations on the four remaining charges.

The verdicts came one day after jurors, who earlier in the week had to be
restrained from fighting one another, reported being deadlocked.

Parker faces multiple drug counts, as well as money-laundering and
tax-evasion charges.

Parker, a narcotics agent for 10 years, is accused of stealing more than a
quarter-ton of cocaine from the bureau's Riverside office. Some $600,000 in
cash was found in his San Jan Capistrano home upon his arrest.

The jury Friday acquitted codefendants Christine Whitney, 27, of Redondo
Beach, and Pamela Gray, 44, of Hermosa Beach. Both had been charged with
possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiracy, said Thom
Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S.Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors alleged Parker stole the cocaine and used Whitney, Gray and a
former girlfriend, Monica Pitto, to sell it Pitto, a recovering cocaine
addict, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and testified the Parker sold her
cocaine that she later resold.