JURY SEES VIDEO OF AUSTIN COPS' `DRUG RAID'

When three Austin District police officers crept into a West Side apartment
with their guns drawn, they thought they were raiding the ``stash house'' of
a drug kingpin known as ``Silky.''

What they didn't know cost them their jobs--and a lot more. Silky was an
undercover agent, and his ``crib'' was filled with more than money. It also
was wired with surveillance cameras that were rolling on Nov. 24, 1996, as
the officers allegedly pocketed about $25,000 in cash from a secret
compartment in a closet.

The dramatic footage from those cameras was played Wednesday for jurors in
the trial of four former Austin police officers accused of corruption. The
star of Wednesday's film was Edward Lee Jackson Jr., a tactical officer also
known as ``Pacman.''

Jackson is the lead defendant in the case. The other two officers involved,
Gregory S. Crittleton and Cornelius Tripp, pleaded guilty before the trial.
They are expected to testify against Jackson.

According to evidence presented Wednesday, the government sting began when
an informant working with authorities tipped Jackson to the stash house in
November, 1996. Drug dealers use stash houses to hide narcotics, cash and
weapons instead of keeping them in their own homes.

The informant told Jackson the apartment in the first block of South
Mayfield was loaded with cocaine, cash and expensive jewelry, the government
said.

A police officer working the sting was shown in Wednesday's video placing
$25,000 in the apartment--most of it hidden behind a secret panel. A $50
bill was placed on a bed.

Authorities did not put cocaine in the apartment, fearing it might end up on
the streets, officials said.

When the officers entered, they couldn't find the stash. Jackson, using his
cell phone, called the informant. The call was intercepted and recorded by
the government.

``Ain't nothing in that apartment,'' Jackson said. The informant gave
Jackson specific directions to the secret stash.

``Pull that [expletive] wood off, man,'' the informant said of the secret panel.

On the other end of the line, Jackson can be heard giving instructions to
the other officers, according to tapes played Wednesday. ``Hurry up. Keep
going. ... Aw. It's plenty,'' Jackson said after spotting the stash.

The video showed Tripp and Crittleton stuffing money into their pockets.

According to Tripp's plea agreement, the cops then drove to Tripp's house,
where Jackson divided the cash among the officers. The government says the
money went into the cops' pockets--not the evidence room.

The government's video drama turned into a farce, however, when jurors were
shown footage of a maintenance man entering the apartment shortly after
police left. Unaware that he was being filmed, the building worker started
loading his pockets with cans of soda scattered on the floor. He then went
to the bedroom and helped himself to the $50 bill on the bed.

Testimony in the trial will resume Monday.