DRUG DEALER TELLS COURT THAT COPS LACKED WARRANT

Trial Is Under Way in Detroit Police Probe

A small-time drug dealer said in federal court Wednesday that two
Detroit police officers burst into his home without a warrant,
falsified reports and lied in court, causing him to be convicted on
bogus criminal charges.

"Officer Robo and Timothy Gilbert deliberately lied about me, busted
up my house, searching me and arresting me," Bruce Toney, 45, of
Detroit, told jurors on the second day of testimony in a trial for
eight Detroit police officers.

They are accused of violating the rights of alleged pimps, prostitutes
and drug dealers in southwest Detroit from 2000 to 2002. Prosecutors
say Officer William Melendez, known on the street as Robo Cop, was a
ringleader in a conspiracy to violate people's civil rights. The eight
officers have pleaded not guilty.

Toney, who was freed from prison in December after other police
officers contradicted Melendez's and Gilbert's account of what
happened, spent two hours on the witness stand Wednesday.

He said he sold crack at the home in the 200 block of Bayside. On the
night of Nov. 18, 2001, two people were inside smoking crack when
Melendez and Gilbert banged on his door and demanded at gunpoint that
he let them in.

Toney, who had stuffed his cocaine supply in the couch, said officers
demanded to know where he kept his drugs. He said Melendez told him he
would fabricate drug and gun charges against Toney if he didn't show
them where his drugs were hidden. Toney said several other officers
showed up during the search.

Eventually, officers found the drugs and a .22-caliber handgun.

In the end, Melendez and Gilbert filed police reports and testified in
district and circuit courts that Toney was leaving his house when they
pulled up in response to a radio run that men with guns were trying to
drag two women into Toney's home. Prosecutors say Melendez and Gilbert
had another officer call in the 911 abduction report to justify their
presence at Toney's home.

Melendez and Gilbert testified at Toney's criminal trial that they
patted Toney down outside his home and found a loaded .22-caliber
pistol and cocaine. They said they never went inside.

A Wayne County Circuit Court jury convicted Toney in 2002 of drug and
firearm charges, resulting in a 29-month prison sentence.

During cross-examination by James Howarth and David Lee, the lawyers
for Gilbert and Melendez, Toney admitted lying at his criminal trial.
But Toney insisted he was telling the truth in Wednesday's testimony.