Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jan 2001
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 2001 World Publishing Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 1770, Tulsa, OK 74102
Website: http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Author: Rod Walton

DAS FRUSTRATED IN DRUG-CASE BACKLOG

The war on drugs in eastern Oklahoma may be deadly serious business, but
it's also a series of games.

Numbers games and waiting games.

While sheriffs across the region boast of huge increases in drug arrests,
and federal courts sentence more offenders, the district attorneys' offices
in rural counties find themselves in an incredibly expanding black hole of
backlogged cases. They feel caught between a greater number of arrests on
one end and the inability of crime labs to keep up.

"What do you do?" Sequoyah County Assistant District Attorney Rob Cowan
asked recently. "The drug problem has kind of overtaken everybody."

Certain numbers provide a daunting glimpse inside the drug blitzkrieg. In
Adair County, for example, more than 400 drug suspects have been arrested in
the past 10 years, but few if any of those arrested have gone to prison.

In 1994, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation crime lab experts
responded to only 10 methamphetamine production busts, according to the OSBI
Web site. Six years later, that total number of meth lab responses jumped to
710.

The situation is perhaps worst in eastern Oklahoma. In OSBI's Enid crime
lab, the most recent backlog was only 13 cases. The Tahlequah crime lab,
however, was stopped up with about 1,200 cases.

"We've just done about everything we can," OSBI spokeswoman Kym Koch said.
"We've thrown overtime at it like crazy."

The state agency finally began shipping some of the Tahlequah cases to the
OSBI's other labs to break the logjam. Even so, the waiting game for drug
lab reports has led to huge court delays and even dismissals, according to
Cowan.

"I have cases here that are sometimes 2-1/2 years old, and I have no lab
report back from OSBI," the Sequoyah County prosecutor said. "I've had the
judge dismiss cases left and right because OSBI cannot process the drugs in
a timely fashion."

U.S. Eastern District drug prosecutor Mike Littlefield sees the rural
counties' plight up close. While he can steer the larger drug-operation
cases into the Muskogee federal courthouse, Littlefield knows that district
attorneys, sheriffs' offices and crime labs are all hamstrung together.

"If the system breaks down at any point, then the entire system bogs down,"
Littlefield said.

"If there are more arrests but no additional prosecutors, it does no good,"
he added. "If there are more prosecutors but no more drug technicians to
analyze the evidence, then you still have a breakdown."

The federal prosecutor noted that he has sent drug offenders to prison who
previously had been arrested and charged in the rural counties where
methamphetamine proliferates, yet who were released because there was no
room for them at the county jail.

"I sympathize with their circumstances," he said of district attorneys. "I
would hate to be faced with the problems they're faced with and be expected
to deal with it without an appropriate increase in resources."

Sequoyah County Sheriff Johnny Philpot did not see it so grimly.

"Most of ours don't make it to trial; most make a plea," Philpot said. "They
know a jury will hang them out to dry, so they'll take a plea anytime."

In most eastern Oklahoma counties, however, prosecutors clearly are
frustrated by the drug-case backlog. They see federal grants pay for more
police and deputies -- which, in turn, leads to more arrests -- but do not
see their lot changing.

"Most of the federal grants, such as the COPS grant, added more officers,"
Cowan noted. "I never hear of grants allowing you to hire more prosecutors."

The imbalance is improving slowly.

Trent Baggett, assistant executive coordinator for the state District
Attorneys' Council, said the Legislature is eager to help prosecutors -- but
wary of spending increases.

"There's a concern by the public, as well as the Legislature, that
government is too big," Baggett pointed out. "Well, while you may not
consider the district attorneys' offices as part of government . . . we
are."

At last count, he said, about 331 prosecutors -- district attorneys and
their assistants -- were employed statewide. That number pales in comparison
to number of law officers in Oklahoma.

The entire budget for district attorneys accounts for only six-tenths of one
percent of state appropriations.

Everybody wants more people -- and more money -- to deal with the rising
drug trade in eastern Oklahoma. The OSBI has requested more lab chemists to
reduce its backlog, for instance, and will "rush" certain drug
investigations when prosecutors call to prioritize their cases.

"For every rush case we're doing, we're pushing another one back on the
shelf," she said.

The formation of county drug task forces -- which incorporate other agencies
that band together for drug sweeps -- has put many offenders in jail, if
only temporarily for some.

Cowan works for District Attorney Dianne Barker Harrold. In 1999 alone,
Barker Harrold's task force -- which covers Adair, Cherokee, Sequoyah and
Wagoner counties -- made 577 total arrests. That kind of activity clogs
jails and court systems.
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