EX-OFFICER FOUND GUILTY IN DRUG CASE

A former Philadelphia police officer who prosecutors said used his
police credit-union account to help launder the gains of his extended
family's illegal marijuana dealings was convicted in federal court
yesterday.

The jury deliberated about six hours over two days before returning
guilty verdicts against Peter Henry, 35, on one count of conspiracy to
launder money and two counts of money laundering.

Henry was acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy to
distribute drugs and of three additional money-laundering charges
involving a marijuana ring that prosecutors said was headed by his
cousin's husband, Corbin Thomas, a Jamaican emigre.

Henry faces a possible jail term of 5 to 6 years, according to the
prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed. U.S. District Judge
J. Curtis Joyner set sentencing for May 20.

Defense lawyer Jack A. Meyerson said he planned to
appeal.

"You always worry about jury compromise," Meyerson said, referring to
the acquittal on the drug charge and the conviction for money laundering.

Henry, a Jamaican-born resident of the city's Wynnefield Heights
neighborhood, was charged, in a 33-count indictment last September,
with being a member of a marijuana ring that operated in the city from
1990 to 1995.

The indictment alleged that he helped launder the cash proceeds -- the
ring made more than $1 million selling thousands of pounds of
marijuana -- by depositing large quantities of cash in his police
credit-union account. The 12-year veteran would then withdraw varying
amounts and use the cash to make straw purchases of automobiles for
Thomas, 36, and others.

Also charged in the indictment were Thomas' nephew, Winston "Titos"
Thomas, 35, and three other associates as well as Henry's
half-brother, Richard Davis, 28, and cousin, Livingston Hall, 28, both
of Philadelphia, who allegedly bought and resold marijuana from the
drug organization.

Davis and Livingston pleaded guilty shortly before the start of
Henry's trial. The remaining defendants are fugitives and believed by
authorities to be in Jamaica.

Authorities said Corbin Thomas apparently fled to Jamaica about a
month after the Nov. 14, 1995, murder of his estranged wife, Hope
Smith Thomas, 29, a cousin of Henry's. She was fatally shot by a man
in a "Wolfman" mask who accosted her and her daughter, Danielle, then
7, outside their Cedarbrook home.

When yesterday's verdict was announced, Henry's wife, Lisa, broke into
wails of "No! No! No!" and had to be restrained by friends and
relatives. As she passed Reed, she kicked at his chair, losing her
shoe in the process. She was briefly detained by U.S. marshals, but
Joyner allowed her release.

After the jury was dismissed, Henry, in appealing to Joyner for his
wife's release, said he had turned down plea bargains that would have
allowed him to serve six months, followed by probation.

Reed said he discussed plea bargains with Meyerson but did not offer a
six-month jail term.

Meyerson declined comment.