Pubdate: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 Source: Naples Daily News (FL) Copyright: 2000 Naples Daily News. Contact: http://www.naplesnews.com/ Author: Associated Press PROSECUTOR WANTS TO KNOW IF OTHER DRUG CASES TAINTED BY TROOPER'S REVELATION BARTOW - A prosecutor who freed a cocaine suspect after learning that Florida Highway Patrol trooper misled a judge has launched a probe to determine if other cases might be tainted. Polk County Assistant State Attorney Brad Copley subpoenaed Trooper Douglas Strickland Dec. 23 to appear in the State Attorney's office in Bartow Tuesday for questioning about "ruse stops." That meeting was postponed until Thursday. "We simply want to see if there are any cases similar to the one about which the trooper testified that were prosecuted in this circuit," said Assistant State Attorney Chip Thullbery, another prosecutor. Thullbery would not comment on the scope of the investigation, including on how many cases might be at issue. The case began in May 1998, after Strickland and another trooper arrested Michael Flynn on Interstate 4 near Lakeland. Norman Dupont and Dewey Davis also were charged in the same case. During trial, Strickland admitted that troopers routinely falsified information on sworn arrest affidavits to protect FBI informants and to keep suspects from knowing they were targets of federal investigations. Copley and other prosecutors, angry that they had been lied to, threw out the charges against Flynn, Dupont and Davis. But federal prosecutors later re-filed the charges in federal court. Early last month, Strickland again testified about making ruse stops in which a trooper pulls over suspected criminals, fully knowing that a car loaded with drugs has been tampered with by FBI or DEA agents. Federal involvement then is not mentioned in any ensuing arrest report. Lawyers for the three defendants said there could be hundreds of wrongly convicted people in prison as a result of the practice. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Jenkins has said the charges can stand, but could reconsider her decision. Copley says he now is concerned Strickland's testimony could have on past drug convictions and future prosecutions in his jurisdiction. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake