DEA AGENT KILLED BEFORE

By The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) A federal drug agent jailed on charges of killing a fellow
agent after an allday Christmas party drinking binge had killed a man
before, also allegedly after drinking, The Miami Herald reported today.

For 18 years, Richard A. Fekete risked his life for the Drug Enforcement
Administration in locales as disparate as the jungles of Panama to the
topless bars of New Jersey.

But during those years, Fekete has repeatedly been under investigation by
the DEA on allegations ranging from drunkenness to domestic violence to
official misconduct, the newspaper said, citing Fekete's internal personnel
file.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment today from the
agency's Miami office, where agents were tightlipped about Fekete's
apparent shooting Friday night of fellow agent Shaun E. Curl, 39.

Fekete, 55, told investigators he had been ``drinking brew'' for more than
10 hours Friday, starting at an allday Christmas party with about 25 to 30
prosecutors and investigators working with a multiagency drug task force.

The party continued at the MiamiDade Police Benevolent Association.
Friends persuaded Fekete to get a ride home, offered by Curl, his friend.
Dozing off in a drunken stupor, Fekete woke up and apparently fired six
shots into Curl as he drove along, police said. He told investigators he
remembered nothing about the drive.

Tests showed Fekete had a bloodalcohol level of 0.269 percent, more than
three times the 0.08 percent at which Florida law considers a driver to be
impaired.

On June 24, 1987, Fekete shot a restaurant cook to death in Philadelphia,
the newspaper reported. Fekete was at a bar on a stakeout for 4 1/2 hours
when he shot the cook, who allegedly threatened a coworker with a knife,
the newspaper said.

Bar employees said Fekete was drunk when he fired the three shots, but the
DEA ruled the shooting justifiable, according to the Herald.

Earlier, the agency tried to demote Fekete after he was accused in 1979 of
disorderly conduct and drunkenness while pursuing an investigation at a
Camden, N.J., strip club.

The agency was ordered by a judge to reinstate him after losing a lawsuit
and an appeal, the newspaper said.