DEFENSE SEEKS VENUE CHANGE IN CASE AGAINST DRUG AGENT

Lawyers for a federal drug agent who is facing manslaughter charges in
Brooklyn asked a federal court to take the case away from the New York
courts yesterday in an unusual move that may expose a bitter division over
the case between federal and state law enforcement officials.

The Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Jude Tanella, shot an unarmed
drug suspect in the back, killing him, after a wild chase and violent
struggle in East Flatbush in May. The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles
J. Hynes, took the case to a grand jury after as many as a dozen civilian
witnesses described the shooting. Mr. Tanella was indicted on manslaughter
charges on Oct. 29.

The case has drawn attention because of a series of twists, including
assertions by the family of the victim, Egbert David Dewgard, that he
worked so hard at his Brooklyn print shop that he would not have had the
time to be a high-ranking member of a drug crew, as has been claimed by
drug investigators. Mr. Dewgard was 31 and the father of three.

The filing yesterday relied on a rarely used federal law that allows
federal officers to move state charges against them to federal court, where
the court can review claims that a federal agent is immune from state
charges because he acted in the performance of his duties. The filing
yesterday asserted that Mr. Tanella, 39, acted in self-defense.

In an interview, Mr. Tanella's lawyer, Lawrence A. Berger, said the federal
court should protect Mr. Tanella from what he described as an improper
prosecution. "We want to make sure," Mr. Berger said, "that this federal
law enforcement officer, who was only doing his job, gets an absolutely
fair hearing in the federal system which employs him."

Mr. Hynes's spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer, said he would have no comment
about the filing yesterday.

The motion will place the federal judge assigned the case, Nicholas G.
Garaufis, at the center of a delicate and largely hidden struggle between
federal and state law enforcement officials.

After Mr. Tanella's indictment, the D.E.A. issued a statement saying it was
"confident that at the end of the proceedings Special Agent Tanella will be
exonerated." That statement, which seemed to take issue with the charges,
was seen as an extraordinary public acknowledgment of a split between the
drug agency and the district attorney.

Mr. Tanella, a former police officer in Old Bridge, N.J., has been
described by federal law enforcement officials who worked with him as a
rigorous agent. Some of them have said recently that they are concerned
that political pressure contributed to the charges.

Through his spokesman, Mr. Hynes said yesterday that "it's absurd on its
face that any political pressure led to this indictment." Mr. Dewgard's
family is from Belize. Mr. Tanella is white and the case has drawn
criticism of the agent from the Rev. Al Sharpton and others.

Criminal law experts said the move by Mr. Tanella's lawyer would give the
defense two advantages, as opposed to fighting the case in the state court
where Mr. Hynes filed the charges. The federal court will focus intensely
on the law granting federal agents immunity from state prosecutions when
they act reasonably, Abraham Abramovsky, a professor at Fordham Law School,
said. Professor Abramovsky said the law was intended to insulate federal
agents from local pressures, such as when they enforced federal law during
the civil rights movement.

In the filing yesterday, Mr. Tanella's lawyer argued that the immunity
would protect a federal agent even if the agent was mistaken about the
action required. He declined to discuss the specifics of the defense.

But law enforcement officials say Mr. Tanella has maintained that Mr.
Dewgard, who was taller and heavier than Mr. Tanella, was confronting him
in a threatening way and turned at the last minute, which is why the shot
went into his back. Witnesses have said Mr. Tanella appeared to panic
during the tussle, which occurred after Mr. Tanella became separated from
other officers.

Lawyers said yesterday that a second advantage the defense would obtain in
moving the case to federal court would be a difference in the composition
of the jury. In state court, the jury would be drawn from Brooklyn alone.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York would
draw jurors from the larger area including Brooklyn, Queens and Staten
Island, and Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Brian Figeroux, a lawyer who represents the Dewgard family, said he thought
the effort to move the case to federal court was improper. "I believe
they're looking for a jury pool that is more reflective of Mr. Tanella's
racial background," he said. "He is white."