COPS, PROSECUTORS LOOKING INTO '98 DRUG-RELATED SLAYING

Six pending drug cases and an unsolved murder have drawn new scrutiny from
police and prosecutors after a Chicago police officer and a detective were
named in a corruption indictment unsealed this week, sources say.

Chicago police Detective Jon Woodall and officer James Benson, along with
fellow Grand Central District officer Peter Matich--who did not work on any
pending drug cases--are charged with stealing 11 pounds of cocaine from an
impounded car in 1998. Each plotted to receive $12,000 from the sale of the
drugs, said the federal indictment unveiled Monday.

Gang specialist Joseph Miedzianowski, sentenced to life in prison last week
for rampant corruption, referred the officers to a drug dealer who could
sell the coke for them, prosecutors said.

Benson, who pleaded guilty, and Woodall, who maintains his innocence, had
worked on six pending drug cases that prosecutors are now reviewing,
sources said.

They're deciding whether there is evidence besides the officers' testimony
to prosecute those cases.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department's Cold Case Squad was assigned
this week to investigate the fatal shooting of Eloy Garza, the driver of
the car containing the 11 pounds of cocaine, sources said.

Garza was killed March 23, 1998, just 19 days after the alleged ripoff. The
federal indictment said Woodall interfered with the investigation into
Garza's killing, urging a drug dealer not to reveal anything about his
relationship with the officers.

Matich says he, too, is innocent.

Benson is accused in a civil lawsuit of planting drugs on police brutality
victim Jeremiah Mearday in 1998.

Another officer, Edgar Placencio, was stripped of his police powers Monday
in the ongoing federal probe.