FORMER OFFICERS ON TRIAL

Only a jury can decide whether two former Richmond County sheriff's
officers were corrupted by the lure of profits from drug dealing and
extortion or were victims of drug dealers willing to say anything to escape
a life behind bars. The trial of Ralph Tyrone Williams and Joseph Ellick
began Monday in U.S. District Court. Both have pleaded innocent to charges
of conspiracy, attempt to possess crack cocaine and violation of the Hobbs
Act by extortion.

"They'll all be here, warts and all," Mr. Williams' defense attorney Pete
Theodocion said of the prosecutor's witnesses - most of whom are admitted
drug dealers.

"You will not see a single grain of cocaine that allegedly ran through my
client's hands," Mr. Theodocion said. There won't be any evidence that Mr.
Williams had any extra cash besides a sheriff's officer's minimum pay,
unlike at least one of the prosecution witnesses who paid $30,000 cash for
a new SUV, the attorney said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Faulkner told the jury in his
opening statement that Mr. Williams and Mr. Ellick sold information to drug
dealers, worked with at least two in the sale of cocaine and extorted money
from others. A law enforcement officer has great power: the ability to
arrest someone or not, seize items and cash, and withhold information to
identify drug dealers, Mr. Faulkner said.

"The defendants used their power and authority ... for their own benefit,"
Mr. Faulkner said. "Instead of protecting and serving the community, they
were serving their own interests."

It was easy for Mr. Williams and Mr. Ellick to do, the prosecutor said.
Dealers cannot complain without admitting they were selling drugs, and if
they complain anyway, their credibility is questionable, he said.

"They are easy prey to a law enforcement officer," Mr. Faulkner said.

Ellick attorney Michael Bloom said, however, what was easy was for drug
dealer Ernest Smith to find a way out of legal trouble in 1999 by saying he
had information on a corrupt officer.

Mr. Smith was looking at a minimum of 30 years without parole in November
of that year when he said he was selling drugs, kilos of cocaine, with Mr.
Ellick, the attorney said.

But when it came time to prove such allegations, by secretly recording
phone conversations and by sending Mr. Smith, wired for sound, to talk to
Mr. Ellick about their alleged past, nothing was said, Mr. Bloom said.

The same is true for Mr. Williams, his attorney said. Federal agents spent
months listening to his telephone calls, taping his conversations with
cooperating drug dealers and tracking his every move, but found nothing
incriminating, Mr. Theodocion said.

Mr. Williams, 36, a veteran narcotics officer, was fired from his job after
he was named in the federal indictment in February. Mr. Ellick, 34, who
last served on the crime suppression unit, quit in 2001 to move to south
Florida.

Both men have been free on $25,000 bonds pending trial.