CON SAYS HE RAN A POT RING INSIDE JAIL

A longtime informant and convicted felon claims he headed a marijuana ring
inside Bland Correctional Center as part of an undercover operation to help
the United States government's war on drugs.

The only problem, federal authorities say, is that they didn't know about it.

Michael Fulcher's defense was raised Monday in U.S. District Court, where
his attorney sought to separate his case from the other 21 defendants
accused in a drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracy. The other
defendants include prison guards and inmates and their friends and relatives.

Defense attorney David Whaley said Fulcher was gathering evidence for the
government that he believed would help him to get his 1993 burglary
convictions overturned.

"He (Fulcher) was more or less gathering information as he'd been trained to
do for 20 years," Whaley said.

Rebuffing Fulcher's claim, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott said, "It was
only when we found out about it, that he was selling marijuana, that he
tried to spin it."

Judge Jackson Kiser said he would rule later on Fulcher's motion to separate
his trial.