Pubdate: Tue, 05 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: 1B Dallas Police DECISIONS ON FIRED OFFICERS EXAMINED Documents Detail Allegations of Lies on Drug Arrest; Lawyer Says Account Is Overblown Dallas police said Monday that they are investigating everyone involved in the decisions surrounding the actions of two officers accused of lying about the arrest of a man for drug possession and the circumstances leading to a raid on a pot den. Police spokesman Lt. Paul Stokes released a news statement saying that "the Dallas Police Department is continuing the administrative investigation into the actions of all personnel involved" after the Friday firings of Jon Llewellyn, 30, and Randolph Dillon, 44, who are 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. A Dallas Morning News investigation has found that the firings came more than a year after questions were first raised among police officials about the pot den raid. On Friday, the district attorney's office announced it had dismissed 60 cases handled by Llewellyn and Dillon. Police Chief David Brown and his second in command, First Assistant Chief Charles Cato, on Friday denied allegations that top police commanders were slow to investigate allegations of misconduct involving the December 2011 bust on Ravinia Drive in Oak Cliff. Cato did not respond to a Monday request for comment about whether the department planned to open an investigation into the actions of supervisors, such as narcotics commander Deputy Chief Andrew Acord. Later in the day, the department issued the brief statement to the media. Documents obtained by The News on Monday detailed the exact nature of the charges in which the two officers are accused of lying in drug cases. Bob Baskett, an attorney for the officers, said in an email Monday that the information in the police documents "makes this sound far worse than it really is." The arrest warrant affidavits say the officers lied the about having found a large amount of methamphetamine in the patio closet of felon Melvin Williams and lied about finding $3,700 in Williams' pocket during a Dec. 9, 2011, drug arrest. The documents also allege that they lied about the circumstances that led up to a Dec. 24, 2011, drug bust at a home in the 600 block of North Ravinia. Williams told investigators that the officers told him they would not take him to jail on drug and weapons charges if he showed them a drug house. So he took them to the house on Ravinia. The officers have denied his account. But, according to the arrest documents, an audit of the squad car's vehicle locator records show that they drove by the Ravinia location on Dec. 9, 2011, on the way to the Dallas County Jail with Williams, and that they returned after leaving the jail. They also returned to the area twice on the following day, for about 31/2 hours, on 2 Dec. 15, 2011, for about three hours, and on Dec. 22 for about 45 minutes. The officers testified and wrote in reports that they targeted the house because an unidentified bicyclist told them a man had jumped into the backyard of the house. When they went to check out the report, they said they saw evidence of drugs being grown in the home. The News' investigation has found that concerns about the officers' truthfulness in the Ravinia drug case immediately arose. Dallas police Sgt. Michael Maness testified in a court hearing in Williams' case that he did not want to run the original search warrant on the Ravinia house because he didn't believe the officers' story matched the evidence. The News reported Saturday that Acord ordered that the warrant be executed even though Maness, a narcotics supervisor, shared concerns about the validity of the officers' claims that there was probable cause to search the house. Questions were raised about what the officers said they saw to obtain probable cause for a raid. For example, the officers claimed they saw a 2-foot-tall marijuana plant through an open door. But the plants were being grown in bedrooms. Maness and Acord have not responded to requests for comment. Maness testified in court that he was transferred out of narcotics to a graveyard patrol shift because of his objections to executing the warrant. Cato has denied that Maness objected to serving the search warrant and has said that Maness was transferred because he failed to "properly respond" when the patrol bureau asked for help with the drug house. Police did not open a criminal investigation into the conduct of Llewellyn and Dillon until late last year after a judge ruled that they repeatedly lied during a civil forfeiture proceeding in which authorities were seeking to keep money seized in Williams' case. Don Tittle, an attorney who represented several victims in the infamous 2001 scandal in which paid police informants planted fake drugs on innocent people, said he was deeply disturbed by the allegations that police commanders may not have learned some of the lessons of that prior scandal. "It's like the same movie I've seen before," Tittle said. Defense attorneys also applauded the DA's dismissal of cases worked by Llewellyn and Dillon. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom