Federal Court

TOP ARISTIDE DRUG COP FACING TRIAL

A federal trial begins Friday on alleged drug trafficking by a top
police official in ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
government.

Suspicious about Haiti's anti-narcotics chief, Drug Enforcement
Administration agents made Evintz Brillant take a polygraph to test
his credibility.

Brillant passed the exam in August 2002, when he indicated he was not
involved in any illegal drug activity in his country. It was part of
the agency's "screening process" to determine Brillant's "ability and
aptitude to work" with the DEA on a smuggling probe.

On Friday, the polygraph test will likely be the first issue to come
up before opening arguments get underway in Brillant's trial on
cocaine-conspiracy charges. A 12-person jury was selected Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors want to prevent Brillant, 33, from using his
polygraph test as evidence because it could be harmful to their case.

Brillant's attorney says he wants the judge to advise the jury that
his client took the polygraph.

The charges against Brillant were the result of last year's
wide-ranging probe into the government of deposed Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Three other Haitian national police officials
have pleaded guilty.

Brillant remains the only one to face charges that he shook down
Colombian drug traffickers for tens of thousands of dollars so they
could ship tons of cocaine through the Port-au-Prince airport from
February 2001 to July 2003.

In the DEA investigation, about 20 drug-traffickers, police
officials, an Aristide security chief, an American Airlines employee
and a Haitian politician have been indicted. Most have pleaded guilty
and provided inside information to Miami prosecutors in exchange for
more lenient sentences.

Aristide, ousted in February 2004 and exiled in South Africa, is a
target of the federal grand jury.

In Brillant's polygraph test, he was asked whether he ever received a
gift or bribe from a drug trafficker; ever provided protection for a
cocaine smuggler; or ever participated in any illegal drug activity
outside the scope of his official duties. He answered no to all questions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick said "a jury could very well
misconstrue the polygraph results as being evidence that the
defendant did not engage in the drug trafficking he is being charged
with being involved in," according to her motion.

Brillant's attorney, Howard Schumacher, said he only learned last
week from prosecutors that his client had taken the polygraph.

Both sides acknowledged that courts normally don't allow polygraph
results into evidence because they're considered unreliable and
confusing for jurors.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who is presiding over the trial,
indicated Wednesday that she would make her decision on Friday.

Allegations of a drug-trafficking conspiracy in the Haitian National
Police surfaced in 2003 when Brillant, head of the anti-drug
trafficking brigade, was accused of aiding narco-traffickers.

His own police department accused him of ordering officers to block a
highway north of Port-au-Prince so a Colombian airplane carrying more
than 1,000 kilos of cocaine could land. Brillant and other senior
police officers lost their jobs because of the scandal.

Four confidential sources told DEA agents that Brillant and former
Haitian National Police Director Jean Nesly Lucien were paid tens of
thousands of dollars to allow cocaine shipments to flow through
Haiti, according to court documents.

One informant -- identified in federal court as Aristide's former
security chief, Oriel Jean -- said Brillant and Lucien seized
$450,000 in drug proceeds from a Haitian-based Colombian drug
trafficker at the Port-au-Prince airport in the summer of 2002.

Jean told DEA agents that "Brillant and other corrupt Haitian
National Police officials negotiated the return of $300,000 of these
seized drug proceeds" with the trafficker, Carlos Ovalle, according to records.

According to records, Jean said that he, Brillant, Lucien and other
police officials kept the remaining $150,000, and agreed to share
future drug payments.

Jean, who testified in July at the only other Haitian
drug-trafficking trial, is scheduled to take the witness stand against Brillant.