"Case Dismissed: Justice Denied"

COPS SKIP COURT FOR GOLF; DRUG SUSPECTS DISMISSED

If suspected drug traffickers Miguel OconAcosta and Mario Rivera didn't
appreciate the joys of golf before they were arrested, they probably do
now. Arrested in May on charges that they had smuggled 88 pounds of
marijuana into Allen Park, the two suspects had felony drug charges
dismissed during their June 9 preliminary examination because the two
arresting police officers were golfing.

"I was not happy at all. It was professionally embarrassing," said Wayne
County Assistant Prosecutor Ray Walsh. "But we reissued the charges." But
the charges against the two weren't reissued for two months. Both
OconAcosta, 35, and Rivera, 47, fled the state immediately after their
charges were dismissed and they were released from jail. Police believe
they are in Mexico.

Both initially were arrested after a lengthy investigation by members of
the Combined Hotel Interdiction Enforcement Unit, CHIEFS, a special drug
task force made up of local, state and federal officers. Michigan State
Police Detective Lt. Mario Burns and Lt. Larry Heins took part in the
arrest and were scheduled to testify during the preliminary examination in
Allen Park.

But both officers had reservations to play in the annual Michigan State
Police Southeast Criminal Investigation Division's golf outing at Fox
Hill's Country Club in Salem Township, their supervisor, Detective Ron
Hnilica, said. The officers had tried to get the hearing adjourned to a
later date, but "there was some miscommunication," Hnilica said.

"It was really a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was
doing," he said. Neither the assistant prosecutor nor the defense attorney
had a problem with setting the hearing for a later date, he said.

But Walsh said the decision to adjourn lies with the judge and that both
officers knew that ahead of time. The judge, who did not approve the
adjournment, dismissed the case when the officers did not appear in court.
"As far as I'm concerned, they were going to be in court when the case came
up," Walsh said. "Then they set up all of this shucking and jiving to get
out of it and blew off the court date. They dropped the ball totally. It
was ridiculous and embarrassing."

Walsh found out that the two were golfing and immediately called their
superiors for a meeting. "I let them know that I was not going to tolerate
anything like that again," he said.