DRUG CHARGE AGAINST IRVIN DISMISSED

DENTON - A felony drug charge against former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin
was dismissed Monday after prosecutors said an officer conducted a search
without a warrant.

State District Judge Lee Gabriel honored a state request dismissing the
felony charge of possessing less than a gram of cocaine.

Irvin was indicted in June, about 10 months after he and a woman were
arrested at a Dallas apartment where law officers said they found marijuana
and ecstasy pills. He has denied that the drugs were his. No charges were
filed involving marijuana and ecstasy pills.

Irvin was to appear in court Friday for a motions hearing in the case. A
trial date had been set for Jan. 14.

But in a motion filed Monday, Denton County prosecutors said they learned
last week that an officer searched the apartment without a warrant.

"Until this fact was revealed to the state, the state was under the belief
that all of the evidence that the state intended to introduce in the trial
of Michael Irvin ... was found in plain view in the apartment when the
officers entered the apartment," according to the motion.

The state also said that separate internal affairs investigations of three
officers from three law enforcement agencies called into question the
testimony of material witnesses. Prosecutors said that without the
testimony, the state could not present a case against Irvin or Nelly Adham,
the woman in the apartment with him who later was indicted on the same count.

"Our initial reaction is one of great relief," said Peter Ginsberg, one of
Irvin's attorneys. "We are glad Michael can go on with his life now."

Prosecutors said they had not been able to question the officer before last
week because of an unrelated internal affairs investigation.

The district attorney's office could not be reached by telephone Monday
night to comment.

Irvin retired from football in July 2000 and was hired for Fox Sports Net's
Sunday pregame show. He lost that job a few weeks after the Aug. 9, 2000,
arrest in the North Dallas apartment in Denton County.

Irvin was not charged after that arrest, which came about one month after
he completed probation on a no-contest plea to felony cocaine possession.
He was indicted on the cocaine charge stemming from the latter arrest in June.

The charge carried a penalty of six months to two years in jail and up to a
$10,000 fine.

In 1996, Irvin pleaded no contest to felony cocaine possession in exchange
for four years of deferred probation, a $10,000 fine and dismissal of
misdemeanor marijuana possession charges.

The NFL suspended Irvin for five games. He finished his deferred probation
just before he announced his retirement.