WITNESS SAYS DA COERCED HIM TO LIE

WASHINGTON, Pa. - A witness in the homicide trials of two men said he
lied in his testimony and alleged he was pressured to do so by
Washington County's district attorney after being charged with drug
possession.

At a hearing last week, Kenneth Jackson also alleged that someone
impersonating him testified at one of the men's trials seven years
ago. Testimony credited to Jackson was key to the convictions of
Lawrence Barnes and Rodney Yarbor in the death of Robert Hannen in
July 1992.

Hannen died of injuries sustained in a beating at his home in
Washington, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

The state Superior Court ordered a new trial for Barnes after
allegations were raised that witnesses at his trial may have lied and
it was shown that Jackson was in jail when Hannen was beaten.

Someone identifying himself as Jackson testified at the trials that he
was with a woman, Mary Lou Stillings, on the night Hannen was beaten
and that the two men had asked to borrow Stillings' car. He also said
he heard the two men admit to the slaying.

Barnes and Yarbor said they were with Stillings at the time of
Hannen's beating. Last week, Jackson said he did not know Stillings at
the time of Hannen's death.

District Attorney John Pettit, who agreed to give Yarbor a new trial
after Superior Court in 2000 ordered one for Barnes, called Jackson's
accusations "a very serious matter" following Thursday's hearing in
Washington County Court on whether the charges against Barnes and
Yarbor should be dismissed.

But Pettit called Jackson's charges "wild accusations" and said he
planned to rebut them when the hearing continues Feb. 10.

Jackson -- who is being held in Allegheny County awaiting trial on a
charge that he murdered his uncle in December 2001 -- alleged that he
told Pettit in February 1996 he would not testify at the trials of
Barnes and Yarbor but was stopped by police after that meeting and
charged with cocaine possession.

At Thursday's hearing, Jackson said he was a drug dealer but that he
did not have any cocaine with him at the time of the stop and implied
he was set up.

He said that during a preliminary hearing on the drug charges in 1996,
Pettit told him, "I made them appear. I'll make them disappear."
Jackson got three years' probation on the charges but said the
prosecutor told him he could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in
prison.

Pettit denied that he set up the drug charges and said he planned to
call police officers who arrested Jackson and present records from the
hearing.

Jackson said he testified at Yarbor's trial but denied taking the
stand at Barnes' trial, alleging that "someone was brought in to
impersonate" him. He said at the hearing that he and one of his
brothers looked alike and often posed as each other.

"He absolutely testified at the Barnes trial," Pettit said. "It
absolutely was him and there was a courtroom full of people" who saw
him.

Jackson also said last week that although he testified in 1996 that he
was not in jail at the time of Hannen's beating, he had been in a
state prison in Mercer County on a parole violation at the time. He
said he told Pettit that several times.