MISTAKES COST U.S. ECSTASY DRUG CASE

Charges Dropped Over Tape Mix-Up

Federal prosecutors have dropped drug charges against two suburban men
after authorities blundered and failed to turn over all the evidence in the
case involving 7,000 tablets of the club drug Ecstasy.

The missing evidence--a secretly recorded telephone conversation between an
informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and one of the
defendants--was discovered three days before the start of the Feb. 4 trial
when one of the defense lawyers insisted on listening to the original
recording.

Defense lawyers admit the taped conversation did not help their case, but
the error prompted U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald to approve dropping the
felony drug and conspiracy charges. Local prosecutors plan to review the
case to determine if they can bring state charges.

The failure to hand over the evidence to defense lawyers was the latest in
a series of prosecutorial missteps in the case that had concerned U.S.
District Judge James Holderman. He earlier ruled that the government was
acting in bad faith when the lead prosecutor twice missed deadlines to
submit documents needed for the trial.

Federal authorities told defense lawyers that agents had attempted to
record three conversations between the informant and one of the defendants,
but the third conversation was lost because of an equipment malfunction.

When defense lawyers Jack Friedlander and Nishay Sanan listened to the
entire tape with prosecutors, they discovered the third conversation had
been recorded. What had confused prosecutors and DEA agents, Fitzgerald
said, were 2 1/2 minutes of silence between the second and third conversations.

Fitzgerald said the office's 110 criminal prosecutors have since been
reminded to listen to tape recordings from start to finish.

"They should check the originals of the tapes and make sure that if there's
a belief that a conversation was not recorded, to double check that to make
sure that we don't have an occurrence of the same problem," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald defended the lead prosecutor, Abra Siegel, describing her as a
hardworking attorney who made an honest mistake.

"She conducted herself in an entirely ethical manner in this case," he
said. "Were mistakes made? Yes. None compromised her integrity."

In dropping the charges, Fitzgerald said he also considered that a key
government witness would not testify because of a serious car crash and a
ruling by Holderman that prosecutors would have an uphill battle proving
the conspiracy charge.

Co-defendants Jamal "Gooch" Alsguson and Aaron Verthein were arrested in
July 2000 in a DEA sting in Orland Park.

Authorities said the DEA used an informant, who had been arrested earlier
and decided to cooperate with authorities, to place three telephone calls
to Alsguson to arrange a deal for Ecstasy tablets. Verthein allegedly
brought $58,000 to the meeting.

Both Alsguson, 24, of New Lenox, and Verthein, 20, of Park Forest, have
maintained their innocence. After the charges were dismissed, Holderman
told the men they caught a rare break, according to the court transcript.

"I really think you ought to take it as a blessing ... and decide that this
is the last time you're going to walk through any courtroom door as a
criminal defendant," Holderman said. "It doesn't happen this way all the
time ... This is your one time."

Siegel and DEA officials declined to discuss the case.

Ecstasy, also known by its chemical initials of MDMA, is a synthetic
stimulant that has hallucinogenic properties. The drug, according to the
DEA, also is known as the "hug drug" or "feel good" drug because it lowers
inhibitions, reduces anxiety and produces a feeling of empathy. It also can
cause seizures from heat stroke or heart failure, brain damage and death.

Police seizures of Ecstasy tablets, which sell on the street for anywhere
from $20 to $40 each, increased from more than 1 million tablets in 1999 to
more than 3 million in 2000.

As the case was heading to trial, Friedlander asked to hear the original
DEA tape.

On Feb. 1, Sergio Acosta, a veteran prosecutor brought into the case late
to help with the trial, met with Sanan and Friedlander to review the
government's evidence. The DEA brought the original microcassette tape to
the U.S. attorney's office, where it was played.

On the day the trial was to start, Acosta told Holderman what had happened.

"We listened to the tape," Acosta said. "After the second conversation,
Judge, there goes--there is a period of time of silence for about 30
seconds, then there is a click as if someone is trying to turn on the
recorder and then it shuts off without any further sound. It goes on then
in silence for about 2 more minutes.

"At that point, Judge, it comes on, there is a third conversation recorded
... I think defense counsel will agree that we were all surprised when we
learned of this and obviously that created a significant issue."

Neither defense lawyer believed the government intentionally withheld the
missing conversation.

"What Siegel should have done was sat down with the DEA agents and listened
to the original tape," Sanan said. "Still, we were confidant we were going
to win at trial."

"This was just sloppy work," Friedlander said. "Forgetting what the tape
did or did not say, we were entitled to hear it. But this tape sat on a
shelf for two years as two DEA agents and their snitch testified at various
proceedings that the tape did not exist."