JUDGES UNAFRAID TO SIDE WITH ACCUSED OVER COPS

Arrested at least 36 times before, Frederick Davis could have faced 10
years in prison after deputies said a search of his vehicle turned up
drugs last winter.

This week, Davis is a free man.

U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell ruled in favor of the "very
street-smart" suspect over the testimony of two Orange County deputy
sheriffs, court records show.

"It wasn't a question of just raising a reasonable doubt that they
weren't telling the truth," said Davis' lawyer, Peter W. Kenny of the
Federal Public Defender's Office. "The judge simply did not believe
the police."

Such rulings are uncommon, but prosecutors and defense lawyers point
to them as indicators of the justice system's fundamental fairness
that shows police and federal agents are held to the same standard of
credibility as defendants.

The chief judge for U.S. Middle District of Florida, for instance,
ruled in a 2001 counterfeiting case that four Secret Service agents
repeatedly threatened a suspect and violated his rights to remain
silent and see a lawyer.

"His version of the events . . . is by far more plausible and
believable than the tightly constructed, seemingly rehearsed, almost
verbatim testimony of the four agents who testified," wrote U.S.
District Judge Patricia A. Fawsett of Orlando, chief judge of the
district covering 35 counties from Fort Myers to Jacksonville. "His
several requests to talk to an attorney fell on deaf ears."

Her ruling led to the dismissal of charges against Raymond E. Lyons
III of Cocoa, who worked in a west Orlando shoe store.

In another local example, U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway threw out
a case in 2001 against a Mexican laborer who was picked up by the U.S.
Border Patrol simply because agents thought he looked "Mexican."

Cop Search Questioned

In Davis' case, court records show the 32-year-old Oviedo man was
arrested after midnight Jan. 10 when a half-ounce of crack cocaine and
two baggies of marijuana were found in his 1994 Chevrolet Suburban.
Deputies say Davis gave them permission to search the vehicle.

Deputy Paul Meinke, who had arrested Davis several times before,
testified that he noticed from two blocks away that the SUV had
illegally tinted windows. The vehicle was seen leaving a house known
for drugs on Lee Street in west Orlando.

Meinke's account came under scrutiny, starting with the tinted
windows.

"It is hard to believe that an officer driving in a car could discern,
on a dark night on a dark street, that a Suburban pulling out of a
driveway two blocks away had windows tinted to an illegal degree,"
Presnell wrote. "Moreover, window tint is not unusual in Florida, so
the mere fact of having tinted windows would not raise an officer's
suspicions."

Deputy Surprised

The judge's findings surprised the deputy, a 10-year veteran.

"Especially when you know you did everything right," Meinke said, in a
telephone interview. "I knew at the time when I stopped Davis that
this was going to be an ordeal in court so I made sure every 't' was
crossed and every 'i' was dotted."

Records show Presnell did not believe that Davis would have allowed
deputies to search his car knowing it contained crack cocaine. Meinke
testified that Davis likely gave him permission because the drugs were
in what Meinke described as a hidden compartment.

A second deputy, John Ward, corroborated Meinke's account.

The judge ordered the vehicle brought to the federal courthouse on
North Hughey Avenue in Orlando, where he inspected the center console
that Meinke testified contained the hidden compartment.

Judge Disagrees

"In the court's opinion, there is nothing unusual about this
configuration, and the compartment is not 'hidden' such that a simple
cursory search would fail to reveal it," he wrote.

Presnell also did not believe that a tiny fleck of marijuana was
spotted underneath the driver's seat by the light of a flashlight
aimed through the darkly tinted window.

"The government's brief contends that Meinke 'observed cannabis
protruding from underneath the driver's seat.' The court finds it
difficult to understand how a piece of marijuana smaller than a seed
can protrude from anything," Presnell wrote in his April 21 order
prohibiting the use of the seized drugs to prosecute Davis.

"If Davis had consented to a search, Meinke would have gone to the
car, opened the door, and began to search freely," instead of using a
flashlight to peer into the Suburban, Presnell wrote. "Meinke's
conduct does not comport with someone who has obtained a full consent
to a search."

Davis, who was released a week ago Friday, did not return repeated
voice-mail messages. A woman answering at Davis' Oviedo home hung up
when told a reporter was calling.

Most of Davis' 37 arrests have ended in dismissed charges or
prosecutors have declined to prosecute, Orange County court records
show. Three of those were dropped after evidence was thrown out after
legal challenges, Kenny said.

"The main thing that really hurts me is that I've known Freddie for 10
years . . . and someone like that doesn't belong on the street,"
Meinke said. "It hurts that he's back out on the street."