Pubdate: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Robert Tharp, The Dallas Morning News Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) QUESTIONS REMAIN IN FAKE-DRUG CASE Ex-Detective Cleared; Other Investigations Focus On Money Trail A Dallas police detective's acquittal this week on federal civil rights charges closes a chapter in the fake-drug scandal, but trial testimony and newly released court documents raise more questions about how a group of crooked confidential informants was able to manipulate detectives and their supervisors for profit. After former Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz's not-guilty verdict, Latino leaders have called for a congressional investigation into the arrests of dozens of innocent people. They also have urged the Dallas County district attorney to bring state charges against Mr. Delapaz. Dallas City Attorney Madeleine Johnson has promised a thorough internal investigation.. And the FBI inquiry continues. Whoever jumps in to fill in the gaps will face diverging money trails, incomplete paperwork and conflicting testimony from illegal immigrants who dealt drugs and were employed by Dallas police. Mr. Delapaz's trial attorney, Paul Coggins, agreed that a thorough internal investigation is needed. "I think the street cops have been run up and down and grilled and scoured," he said. "There were some incredibly lax procedures. ... These guys [the informants] by luck or design exploited the weaknesses." Some of the questions lingering for investigators revolve around the following: . The informants' fake-drug scheme began as a plot to steal money given to them by police to set up drug deals, according to trial testimony. FBI records show that the informants stole more than $11,000 from the department. Police procedures at the time required detectives to file theft or lost-property reports with their supervisors when drug money was missing. Police officials have not disclosed whether those reports were filed or whether supervisors took note of the missing money. . Police commanders were aware that at least one of the three confidential informants who worked with Mr. Delapaz was an illegal Mexican immigrant, yet they approved cash payments to him, records show. Police operating procedures don't specifically address the employment of illegal immigrants, but it's generally against the law for anyone to employ workers without legal immigration status. . Police procedures require that payments to any confidential informant be documented with an informant's signature. For some of Mr. Delapaz's informants, the payments were so large that the informants were paid in installments. According to FBI reports based on an agent's interview with Mr. Delapaz, the informants signed documents only after the total amount was received. . An attorney for some of the informants disputes that his clients' signatures on payment records are authentic, and some of the informants have denied receiving all the money listed in the reports. . At least seven people took part in fabricating fake drugs out of billiards chalk under the direction of Mr. Delapaz's main confidential informant, Enrique Alonso, trial testimony showed. The powder was molded into bricks and wrapped in plastic at Mr. Alonso's daughter's East Dallas apartment, and his brother and son-in-law bought the chalk by the case. Another man, Roberto Santos, admitted in testimony that he took part in setting up people for arrest. After a two-year federal investigation, only three of those people - Mr. Alonso, Jose Ruiz and Roberto Gonzalez - have been charged with a crime. . Field tests of the seized substances were performed by officers other than Mr. Delapaz. Those tests indicated that the drugs were real. In at least 24 cases, the seized drugs turned out to be bogus or were less than 1 percent real. Jurors in Mr. Delapaz's federal criminal trial agreed unanimously that the former undercover drug detective did not intentionally lie in reports about a series of bogus narcotics arrests, which the indictment alleged. But one juror said the panel longed for someone from the Police Department to explain other officers' roles in the arrests and whether any police procedures were violated. "No one said Mark did anything wrong," said the juror, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There was no supervisor pointing their finger at him, saying, 'If he had done this. ...' The prosecution did not give us the sense that he had violated a procedure." Adelfa Callejo, an attorney for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the lack of answers is frustrating. "Nobody has been punished except a couple of informants. Nobody has given us an explanation. No one has given us an apology. There's no satisfaction," she said. "We're tired of waiting." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin