Pubdate: Mon, 17 Feb 2003
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
Author: Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press Writer

AGENTS WIN SUIT VS. PA. ATTORNEY GENERAL

PHILADELPHIA - A federal jury awarded $1.5 million to two narcotics agents 
who claimed the Pennsylvania attorney general retaliated against them 
because they uncovered a drug-trafficking ring they said diverted profits 
to a CIA (news - web sites)-backed Dominican presidential candidate.

John McLaughlin and Charles Micewski sued over their transfer from the 
Philadelphia office of the state Bureau of Narcotics Investigation in 1996.

"They won their lives and their reputations back," said their attorney, Don 
Bailey.

Attorney General Mike Fisher said he will appeal. It was his predecessor, 
Tom Corbett, who transferred the agents.

McLaughlin and Micewski said they uncovered a drug-trafficking ring 
operating in Philadelphia, New York and other Eastern cities that funneled 
drug profits to the left-wing Dominican Revolutionary Party, which they 
claimed was supported by the CIA and State Department.

They said the U.S. government allowed the party's presidential candidate, 
Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, to return to the Dominican Republic after a 1995 
fund-raising swing through New York with $500,000 in alleged drug profits.

CIA spokesman Tom Crispell on Tuesday dismissed the agents' allegations as 
"absurd."

The agents said that shortly after they made their allegations, the 
Philadelphia district attorney and U.S. Attorney's office stopped 
prosecuting their drug cases. More than 125 cases were dismissed or dropped 
after prosecutors accused agents of fabricating evidence and lying on the 
stand.

McLaughlin, Micewski and other agents were transferred and removed from 
street duty.
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