4 AUSTIN OFFICERS CONVICTED, FACE STIFF PRISON SENTENCES

Four West Side Chicago police officers who prosecutors say sold their
loyalty to gang bosses and showed more interest in profiting from drug
sales than protecting citizens were convicted Thursday in the Austin 7
corruption scandal.

The lead officer, Edward Lee "Pacman" Jackson Jr., identified by
prosecutors as a ranking member of the Conservative Vice Lords street gang,
faces a staggering minimum sentence of 126 years in prison, authorities said.

Jackson and two other officers, M.L. Moore and Alex Ramos, were convicted
on all counts by the nine-man, three-woman federal jury, while the fourth
officer, James P. Young, was convicted on two counts and acquitted of six
others. Deliberations lasted parts of three days.

U.S. Atty. Scott Lassar told reporters that the convictions bring an end to
the Operation Broken Star probe of Chicago's Austin Police District, but
law-enforcement sources said the investigation is continuing.

Three additional Austin District officers pleaded guilty to corruption
charges before trial.

The Austin probe represents the worst case of corruption in the Chicago
Police Department since 1990, when seven Wentworth District officers were
convicted of taking protection payoffs from gamblers and drug dealers.
Three other officers pleaded guilty in that case.

The Austin District convictions come just five months after three Gresham
District officers were convicted in federal court on similar charges of
robbing drug dealers.

According to prosecutors, the Austin officers brazenly ripped off drug
dealers of cash and narcotics, confident their victims would be too fearful
to report the crimes or that they wouldn't be believed if they did.

Testimony indicated the officers traveled outside their district when
opportunities to make money arose. In one case, Jackson drew up a phony
warrant to search a drug house, stole a large quantity of crack cocaine and
gave the narcotics to the chief of the Traveling Vice Lords faction of the
gang to sell on the street. He then shared in the profits.

Tape-recordings showed Jackson concealing his conduct from a police
superior but taking orders from gang leaders. The highest ranking
Conservative Vice Lord street leader was captured on tape instructing
Jackson to interfere in the questioning of a suspect in a stabbing,
authorities said.

According to federal prosecutors Brian Netols, Mark Filip and Ryan Stoll,
three of the convicted Austin officers face unusually stiff sentences. In
addition to Jackson's minimum 126-year prison term, Moore faces at least
106 years and Ramos a minimum 53 years in prison, they said.

Under federal sentencing laws, the defendants will serve 85 percent of
those sentences.

The stiff sentences result primarily from the officers' convictions for
using their service weapons during the shakedowns of suspected drug
dealers. The gun charges carry a 5-year prison term for the first count and
additional 20-year sentences for each subsequent count, to run consecutive
to other convictions.

The convictions marked both a blight and a success for the Chicago Police
Department.

It was, after all, the department's own Internal Affairs Department that
launched the investigation of the corrupt officers--after numerous citizen
complaints--and enlisted the help of the FBI.

The Chicago police "didn't sweep it under the carpet," said John P.
Johnson, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Chicago.

In addition, Chicago Police Sgt. Eugene Shepherd, a 27-year veteran, played
a critical and dangerous undercover role in the probe, posing as "Silky," a
major West Side cocaine dealer.

Shepherd was unable to wear a hidden recorder because of fears the officers
would search him. Indeed, Jackson once suspected Shepherd of being "a fed,"
and another officer hustled him to a bathroom at the Austin District
station, ordered him to undress and strip-searched him.

Without undercover tapes of the shakedowns to play, Shepherd's credibility
became even more important, but he withstood cross-examination.

According to prosecutors, Jackson, 27, was a renegade, out-of-control
officer who robbed drug dealers, planted dope on others and did the bidding
of gang bosses.

Jackson still faces separate charges of teaming up with a gang leader to
rip off other drug dealers.

Moore, 49, and Ramos, 32, were found guilty of taking cash to protect what
they thought were Silky's deliveries of large quantities of cocaine around
the Chicago area. Moore also was convicted of shaking down Silky.

Jackson was convicted on all 15 counts, Moore on all 19 counts and Ramos on
all 10 counts, including racketeering, extortion and gun charges.

Young, 31, was convicted of joining Moore in one shakedown of Silky only
days after he joined the tactical unit, which is comprised of plainclothes
officers who work the streets to combat gangs and drugs.

But Young was acquitted of home invasion of a drug dealer. In that
incident, testimony relied in part on the testimony of informants, some of
them convicted drug dealers.

U.S. Atty. Lassar speculated that jurors didn't trust the informants but
found Shepherd's testimony about the first shakedown to be credible. Also,
Young was the only officer who wasn't captured on undercover taped
conversations; he also testified in his own defense.

Young faces an 11-year prison sentence.

Following the verdict, Ramos' wife and family wept as he was taken away by
federal deputy marshals after U.S. District Judge Ann Williams revoked his
bond at the request of prosecutors.

Williams, though, allowed Young to remain confined to his home, in part so
he can be with a seriously ill daughter.

Jackson and Moore have been in custody since they were arrested in December
1996.

Joan Hill McClain, Jackson's lawyer was critical of the verdict, saying she
didn't think the officers would not have been convicted if they were white.
Jackson, Moore and Young are black; Ramos is Latino.

Even though nine of the jurors were minorities, and seven were black,
McClain said: "Look at the foreperson." He was white.

Stanley Hill, Moore's attorney, vowed an appeal, while Young's lawyer
declined to comment. Ramos' lawyer couldn't be reached for comment.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski