STATE'S HIGHEST COURT ASKED TO DECIDE FREE SPEECH ISSUE

ANNAPOLIS - The state's highest court is being asked to decide whether a
man who disclosed the identity of two undercover officers was exercising
his right to freedom of speech or hindering enforcement officials in the
line of duty.

Wayne N. Davis was arrested in July 1991. A few weeks before, he had said
to a friend ``Those girls are narcs'' as two women came out of The Cork Bar
on an Ocean City side street known for its drug trade.

He apparently said it loudly enough for the two women to hear, despite the
commotion of people going in and out of bars at 1 a.m.

The two women, Bernadette DiPino and Alice Brumbley, were undercover officers.

DiPino arrested Davis for blowing their cover, in technical terms, for
hindering enforcement officials in the line of duty.

Davis first met the officers as he was bicycling on the boardwalk, and,
according to the officers, expressed an interest in buying marijuana.

DiPino and Brumbley arranged to meet Davis at a bar soon after. DiPino
asked a fellow officer, Gary Holtzman, to attend the meeting. During that
meeting, Davis recognized Holtzman as an undercover officer. Their
daughters went to the same elementary school.

Davis warned DiPino and Brumbley - unaware that they were undercover
officers - not to discuss drugs because of Holtzman. DiPino and Brumbley
then dropped their investigation of Davis. That apparently gave him a clue
as to their role.

Shortly after Davis' arrest from the Cork Bar incident, prosecutors dropped
the case. But Davis sued DiPino and the municipality of Ocean City for
damages.

The trial court found for the city and the officers in the civil case.
Davis appealed.

Maryland's lower appellate court split 7-6 in favor of Davis.

Court of Special Appeals Chief Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr., who was not with
the majority, said the Davis case was not about the right of free speech,
but about whether there is a right to "blow the cover'' of an undercover
officer.

Such a right has never been established "in Maryland or anywhere else,''
Murphy said.

The Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case earlier this month and was
expected to decide in the Davis case by the end of the year.

Davis, meanwhile, has secured some influential allies, including the
Maryland Trial Lawyers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and
former Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs.

Davis "may not have been an articulate or thoughtful critic of government
policy,'' Sachs wrote the court. "But it cannot be disputed that Davis was
arrested, jailed and charged because a government agent disliked and feared
his words."

"This is precisely what the First Amendment forbids,'' Sachs said, writing
on behalf of the ACLU.