TWO ACCUSED OF CHANGING DRUG CASE TESTIMONY

Two witnesses who testified in one of West Virginia's largest drug
conspiracy cases have been indicted on charges they lied under oath
about the amount of drugs shipped into the state.

In affidavits filed in the summer of 2002, Charleston residents
Benjamin E. Green and Lori Nicole Cummings gave testimony different
from their 1999 testimony in Calvin Dyess' drug conspiracy case,
federal grand jurors charged Monday.

Dyess, of Hurricane, is serving a life sentence for importing more
than 100 pounds of marijuana and 200 pounds of crack cocaine into the
Kanawha Valley from 1993 to 1999.

Green and Cummings testified in 2002 that they had been pressured by
Charleston Police Cpl. William Hart to say that they had brought
specific amounts of cocaine from other states.

Green said he told Hart he did not know how much cocaine Dyess was
bringing back from New York, Texas and Atlanta. Green said Hart became
angry and told him to pick a number between 30 and 40 kilograms.

In 1999, Green told a grand jury that Dyess brought back "30 or 40
keys."

In a May 2002 affidavit, Cummings said Hart told her to testify that
Dyess put 6 kilograms of cocaine in her vehicle, when in fact Dyess
never put drugs in her car.

That contradicted Cummings' testimony on Jan. 22, 1999, in which she
said that she understood the packages contained drugs.

Green faces three counts of perjury and two counts of making false
statements. He is serving 12 years and two months in federal prison
after pleaded guilty in April 1999 to helping Dyess sell crack.

Cummings faces two counts of making false statements. She has
completed a three-year, five-month prison sentence, and federal
officials say they do not know where she is.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary E. Stanley threw out perjury charges
against Green in October regarding the same 2002 affidavit. She said
prosecutors did not zero in on what testimony was false and also did
not have enough evidence.

Stanley said that under federal law, the government must have two
pieces of evidence to prove perjury. In Green's case, they only had
the affidavit, she said.

She did rule that other evidence supported Green's testimony that
Dyess had brought multiple kilograms of cocaine to West Virginia.

Hart himself faces a federal probe. Federal prosecutors have charged
him with allowing Dyess' wife, Rachel Ursula Rader, to keep some of
his drug money. Rader later divorced Dyess and married Hart. They then
divorced after three months.

U.S. District Judge Charles Haden II refused on May 30 to accept a
plea deal between Hart and prosecutors until more information comes
out. Hart has never been indicted by a grand jury for any crime.

Haden said that if Rader is to be believed, more than $20,000 in drug
money is unaccounted for. Rader has also accused Hart of telling her
to lie at Dyess' sentencing hearing.

Assistant U.S. attorneys from Virginia are prosecuting the
Dyess-related cases. Haden disqualified federal prosecutors from West
Virginia, saying they might have known about Hart's alleged conduct.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Haden to reopen the
Dyess cases in 2002 after allegations arose that police and lead
investigators stole drugs, tampered with witnesses and evidence and
lied under oath.