EX-FORD HEIGHTS COPS GUILTY OF BRIBE-TAKING

Two former Ford Heights police officers pleaded guilty Monday to
racketeering and admitted taking numerous bribes from several crack-cocaine
dealers to overlook wide-open drug trafficking in the south suburb.

Five former officers, at one time at least half of the town's full-time
force, have now been convicted of corruption since charges were first
brought in October 1996 in federal court. A sixth was convicted in an
unrelated insurance fraud scheme.

The latest to admit wrongdoing were Kerwin Hall, 39, now of St. Paul, and
Odell Boxley, 50, of Ford Heights, both of whom held the rank of corporal.
Each faces 11 to 14 years in prison, according to Assistant U.S. Atty.
Jonathan Bunge, who prosecuted the case. They are scheduled to be sentenced
Oct. 16.

According to their separate plea agreements, Hall and Boxley regularly took
payoffs from two narcotics dealers as well as a female dealer who was,
without their knowledge, cooperating with the FBI.

After her earlier arrest on drug-dealing charges, the woman, Norma Nelson,
told authorities that she been the target of shakedowns by Hall for money,
according to Bunge.

The first of several drug dealers who eventually agreed to cooperate
against the corrupt officers, Nelson wore a hidden recorder as she made
eight payoffs to Hall and four payoffs to Boxley in 1991 and 1992, Bunge
said.

Both officers also admitted taking numerous payoffs from drug dealer
Timothy Smith from 1991 to 1993.

Hall also took money from drug dealer Warren Johnson from 1991 to April
1993, while Boxley also extorted from drug dealer James Cross from 1993 to
1996, according to their plea agreements.

In return for the money, the agreements said, the officers refrained from
interfering with drug trafficking and provided the dealers with sensitive
information about the enforcement activities of other officers.

Smith, Johnson and Cross all operated major drug trafficking operations 24
hours a day, seven days a week in Ford Heights, Bunge said. Johnson is now
dead, while Smith and Cross are serving lengthy prison terms.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Hall and Boxley will be held
responsible for a combined 110 to 330 pounds of crack and powder cocaine
the drug operations are estimated to have peddled in Ford Heights.

Their guilty pleas come days after another former Ford Heights police
officer, Keith Jones, 38, pleaded guilty to racketeering for ignoring drug
activity in the town.

Last June, Capt. Jack Davis was sentenced to 20 years in prison after his
conviction by a federal jury for pocketing bribes from drug dealers while
he was acting chief of the force.

Davis was found guilty of letting the drug trade flourish, tipping off
dealers to law-enforcement efforts and even offering advice on the best
places in Ford Heights to sell narcotics.

Former Officer Dale Jones was sentenced to 14 years in prison last October
after he also pleaded guilty to taking bribes from drug dealers, while
charges are still pending in the investigation against Sgt. Vincent Taran
Hunter and Carl Amos, an alleged drug dealer.

Cordell Williams, another Ford Heights police officer, was given probation
for torching his personal car and then claiming it had been stolen and set
afire by the thief.

When the charges against the officers left the impoverished village with
only a handful of full-time officers remaining on duty in fall 1996, Cook
County sheriff's police and the Illinois State Police were brought in to
bolster police protection for the community.