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Pubdate: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Forum: http://forums.bayarea.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption) 5 ON MIAMI SWAT TEAM FACING CHARGES MIAMI (AP) -- Five members of the Miami Police Department's SWAT team were charged Wednesday with lying to federal investigators during a probe of a 1996 drug raid in which a 73-year-old man was killed in a hail of 123 bullets. Jose Acuna, Ralph Fuentes, Arturo Beguiristain, Eliezer Lopez and Alejandro Macias were indicted by a federal grand jury on obstruction-of-justice charges. All five officers have been on the force for at least 12 years. They were accused of fabricating evidence and agreeing to make false statements regarding the slaying of Richard Brown, a retired seaman who was gunned down by the five officers and a sixth SWAT team member. The officers were placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday pending the outcome of their case, police said. They could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Bond was set Wednesday at $100,000 for four of the defendants; they immediately posted bond. The fifth defendant, Macias, was to appear in court today. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager