Pubdate: Sat, 02 Mar 2013 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2013 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Tanya Eiserer Page: 1A OFFICERS ARRESTED IN DRUG CASE Accusations of Lying, Tampering Recall Similar Events a Decade Ago In an episode reminiscent of the city's embarrassing 2001 fake-drug scandal, two Dallas police officers were arrested Friday on accusations that they lied in court and tampered with evidence in drug cases. The officers' arrests, and the circumstances that caused them, have raised questions about whether Police Chief David Brown's top commanders dragged their feet for about a year after concerns arose about the two officers' truthfulness. In a brief telephone interview late Friday, Brown categorically rejected any assertions that his department was slow to react. He declined to elaborate. Officers Jon Llewellyn, 30, and Randolph Dillon, 44, have been charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and aggravated perjury. Both are third-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The two were also fired after a disciplinary hearing earlier Friday. Moments after the hearing, the Dallas County district attorney's office announced that it had dismissed 60 cases involving the fired officers. Prosecutors continue to review other cases that involved the two. The two men, who were in the same 2009 academy class, were not available for comment. Bob Baskett, an attorney for the officers, previously denied any wrongdoing on his clients' part and would only say Friday that "they can get an arrest warrant for a ham sandwich." Authorities say Llewellyn and Dillon lied in court about a Christmas Eve 2011 drug bust that led to the seizure of nearly 600 marijuana plants in a house on Ravinia Drive in Oak Cliff. The details of the tampering charge remained unclear Friday. In addition to those cases, Brown also disciplined them for falsely claiming they witnessed a traffic violation that led to a heroin bust in October. Investigators discovered that other officers actually witnessed the traffic infraction. Deputy Chief Ches Williams said in a recent interview that complaints about Llewellyn and Dillon in the Ravinia Drive case weren't formally investigated sooner because "at the time we looked at the case, there was no concrete evidence that they had done anything wrong." Police opened a criminal investigation late last year after a judge ruled that Llewellyn and Dillon repeatedly lied during a civil forfeiture proceeding in which authorities were seeking to keep money seized in one of the cases. "There's a culture that we're going to condone officers that are untruthful and if you do try to bring it to our attention, we're not going do anything about it," said Michael Smith, a defense attorney involved in the case. "When it became clear that they've committed perjury, it's only then that they do something about these two cops." The department has faced similar accusations before. In 2001, it was revealed that paid police informants had planted fake drugs on innocent people. Chief Terrell Bolton initially played down the situation, saying he believed that drug dealers were selling fake drugs and that it was "a blessing" authorities had discovered it. The scandal cost millions of dollars in settlements, played a role in Bolton's firing and resulted in the convictions of several former police officers. Felon's arrest The downfall of Llewellyn and Dillon began with their seemingly unrelated Dec. 9, 2011, arrest of felon Melvin Williams at a West Camp Wisdom Road apartment complex. They also seized more than $3,700 from him. Williams later said the officers told him they would not take him to jail on drugs and weapons charges if he showed them a drug house. So he took them to the house on Ravinia Drive, he said. The officers have denied Williams' account. According to court and police documents, the officers said they targeted the Ravinia house Dec. 23, 2011, after an unidentified bicyclist told them someone had jumped a fence into the back yard of the home. The uniformed patrol officers said they saw a man appear from an opening under the house, jump on a wooden dolly and open the back door. That man has never been identified. The officers said they briefly saw a two-foot marijuana plant in the back doorway before the man entered the house and shut the door behind him. He fled out the front door before they could catch him. The officers described what made them suspect drug activity: hoses under the home connected to a water pump; boarded windows with air conditioning units with timers; a pungent marijuana smell; and a neighbor telling them that no one lived there and that two men visited daily. Dillon said he contacted the man listed on the home's water bill and told him someone may have broken into the home. The officers soon saw a man pull into the driveway and briefly enter. Quick confession "This is not going to be a good Christmas," the man said as the two officers approached him. The officers said the man, with little prompting, confessed to them he had about 500 plants in the house. In a later interview at headquarters with police narcotics Sgt. Michael Maness, the man confessed that he was growing marijuana, police records show. Detectives executed a search warrant and seized hundreds of marijuana plants on the afternoon of Dec. 24, 2011. The plants were found in three bedrooms. Lingering questions Despite the drug seizure, Maness later said he had questions in his mind about the actions of Llewellyn and Dillon, which he passed on to his supervisors. "I felt that they were being untruthful on the affidavit with the search warrant," Maness testified during the civil forfeiture hearing in Williams' case. Because of a prosecutor's objection, a judge did not allow Maness to detail his specific concerns. But Smith, who represents Williams, said he believes he knows some of Maness' issues: How could an unidentified man have time to unlock the back door and flee out the front? How could the officers see a marijuana plant when the plants were in the bedrooms? How could they see timers on air conditioning units from the outside? "The story just didn't add up," Smith said. Investigators have since concluded that the fired officers improperly entered the house. Several Dallas police officials with knowledge of the investigation said narcotics division commander Deputy Chief Andrew Acord overrode Maness' objections and ordered that the warrant be served. Acord has not responded to repeated requests for comment. Maness was involuntarily transferred to the graveyard patrol shift in January 2012. He testified that the transfer was because he objected to serving the search warrant. First Assistant Chief Charles Cato said in an email late Friday that Maness did not object to serving the search warrant and that he was transferred because he failed to "properly respond" when the patrol bureau asked for help with the drug house. One high-ranking police official who met with the two officers about the Ravinia Drive situation was Ches Williams, the deputy chief who commanded the southwest patrol station where Llewellyn and Dillon were assigned. "They said they saw what they saw, and I had no way to contradict them," Williams said. "They were good at getting dope in that area of town." Court records show that no one was ever arrested in the Ravinia Drive bust and that authorities did not pursue the case. 'Careful review' Cato wrote that the decision not to charge the suspect was made "after a careful review of the evidence." He did not elaborate. During the October civil forfeiture hearing for Melvin Williams, his attorney asked the two officers whether they offered not to arrest his client in exchange for his showing them a drug house. The officers denied doing so. And both men denied being on Ravinia Drive with Melvin Williams on the day of his arrest. Vehicle records But vehicle locator records obtained by The Dallas Morning News showed they were on Ravinia a little more than two hours after first encountering Williams. The records show them repeatedly returning the next day. In mid-October, District Judge Carl Ginsberg issued a ruling calling the testimony of Llewellyn and Dillon "largely perjurious." He concluded that they violated Williams' constitutional rights and lied about where they found some of the money and drugs, and he ordered that his money be returned. Williams' criminal cases were dismissed Friday. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom