DEAL ENDS POLICE 'MALA SANGRE' WHISTLE-BLOWER LAWSUITS

Austin To Pay $200,000 In Case; Officer Said He Was Transferred For
Accusing Assistant Chief Of Interfering With Investigation

The City of Austin will pay $200,000 to settle a whistle-blower
lawsuit with an Austin police officer, ending one of the department's
most notorious sagas in recent memory.

Officer Jeff White accused former Assistant Chief Jimmy Chapman of
having him transferred after White told an internal affairs
investigator that Chapman had interfered in aspects of a
drug-trafficking investigation.

The mid-1990s investigation - code-named Mala Sangre, or Bad Blood -
was led by federal agents with the help of local officers.

It turned up leads that some Austin officers might have been
protecting and assisting drug dealers and using cocaine on duty. None
of the officers was prosecuted.

On Thursday, the City Council unanimously agreed to settle the case
for $200,000: $100,000 for White and $100,000 for his lawyer, Don Feare.

Neither Feare nor White could be reached for comment Thursday.

The settlement does not come with any admission of guilt by city
officials, who all along have said the matter was fully investigated
and that the department and Chapman did nothing wrong.

Four other officers filed two lawsuits related to Mala Sangre; the
city settled those cases in 2000 for $6,000 and $80,000.

"Each case was analyzed separately, and the settlement amounts are
based on the unique facts and circumstances of each case," City
Attorney David Smith said.

Smith said that city officials and White, who still works for the
department, have agreed not to discuss details of the case or assign
any blame as part of the settlement.

White sued in 2002 after he was transferred from a job in narcotics.
He said he was also blocked from other assignments.

In a deposition, Chapman testified that White was moved because of
poor work performance, though work evaluations showed White received
high marks.

The other four officers alleged in their lawsuits that they were
transferred off the Mala Sangre task force to stymie the
investigation into possible wrongdoing by fellow officers.

White became the only officer assigned to the task force when the
others left. As a result, he said, he was "set up for failure"
because of the large caseload.

Feare deposed several city officials, including Police Chief Stan
Knee and City Manager Toby Futrell.

The city police union, often at odds with city officials, made public
some of the more scintillating details of the depositions, which led,
in part, to an independent investigation of Chapman.

Other officers said Chapman had demanded that phone records be
removed from an internal affairs file, which Chapman denied under oath.

Chapman also testified that he wasn't aware that White would be
transferred, although another officer said Chapman knew of the move.

Chapman retired in 2003, shortly after an independent investigator
ruled that the allegations against Chapman were inconclusive.

The Mala Sangre operation led to 20 arrests across the United States,
include retired Austin police officer Bob Black and the man accused
of running the drug operation, Roger Lopez. Black was sentenced to 18
months in federal prison for buying cocaine, and Lopez got seven
years for drug trafficking.

But internal affairs officers testified that they never had a chance
to fully examine the matter because management-level officers quashed
their efforts.

Austin Police Association President Mike Sheffield said Thursday that
he is glad the lawsuit is over for White's sake but that "city
management is still in denial about Mala Sangre."

Sheffield said the city stopped the independent investigation before
all the witnesses had been interviewed and all leads examined.

"Had that been done, I think we would've been a lot closer to the
truth than we are today," Sheffield said.