Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jan 2001
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Company
Contact:  P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006-0280
Fax: (847) 427-1301
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/
Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)
http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

UNTOLD DAMAGE FROM A LIE

No one, including appellate court justices, likes to free a felon with
a long history of offenses. Thus, it had to be with some dismay that
the 2nd District Appellate Court overturned the drug conviction and
eight-year prison sentence of Lorenzo Allen, an Elgin man with
multiple felony convictions on his record.

Dismayed or not, however, the appellate court made the only decision
it could have under the circumstances, given grand jury testimony by
Elgin police Officer Daniel Rouse that can only be described as pure
fiction.

Since that testimony was the basis of the initial indictment, the
court ruled not only that Allen's conviction be overturned but that he
also could not be retried. The decision will be appealed to the
state's Supreme Court.

Rouse testified he had seen Allen go to and from a bathroom during a
1998 drug raid and that he saw Allen flush drugs down the toilet. The
court said Rouse could not have witnessed such events, nor did any
other officer, though Rouse tried to prop up his initial untruth by
saying he was representing what other officers saw. That position was
not supported by officers' reports, either, the court said.

We would stop short of calling the decision "beautiful," as did
Allen's original defense attorney, Van Richards of Elgin. But we
cannot disagree with Richards' contention that "the system has to work
for everybody."

For justice to be individually served and for the justice system to
work as a whole, telling the truth on a witness stand is paramount. It
is especially imperative when those witnesses are police officers.

By not doing so, police officers jeopardize the prosecution of
individual cases, as Rouse did, and destroy their own credibility.
Much as any lie does, a lie on the stand makes suspect every other
statement that officer makes in the future, a painful reality Rouse
already is beginning to discover.

What is worse, though, is that Rouse also did untold damage to his
colleagues and to citizens' belief in a system that many already doubt
is impartial. The testimony of other Elgin police officers will no
doubt be scrutinized more closely for some time to come and their
arrests may be more harshly analyzed, all that thanks to a colleague's
lie.

No one case is worth that sort of damage and as the appellate court
made more than clear, such deceit by a man sworn to uphold the law is
simply indefensible and intolerable to anyone who venerates justice.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake