Pubdate: Fri, 06 Oct 2000
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  501 N. Calvert Street P.0. Box 1377 Baltimore, MD 21278
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Author: Peter Hermann and Caitlin Francke

20 CASES COULD BE TOSSED BY STING

Sen. Mitchell asks broad federal probe after officer's arrest; Civil rights
inquiry begins

At least 20 people arrested by a Baltimore police officer charged with
planting evidence might have their cases thrown out by city prosecutors, and
the FBI said yesterday that it has begun a civil rights inquiry into the
case.

The case also prompted the state's top public defender to order a review of
all past convictions in which defendants claimed police misconduct, which
could trigger scores of appeals from imprisoned drug dealers.

"There could be some people serving rather lengthy sentences based on
suspicious things," said State Public Defender Stephen E. Harris.

City prosecutors are reviewing 20 of the officer's pending drug cases. If he
is the primary witness, "those cases will be dismissed," said Joyce
Jefferson Daniels, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.

Federal authorities said they're looking into whether Officer Brian L.
Sewell violated the civil rights of the 18-year-old man he is accused of
falsely arresting on cocaine charges Sept. 4.

Sewell's arrest on perjury and misconduct charges Wednesday has given claims
of legitimacy in some quarters to longtime complaints that officers
fabricate evidence to secure arrests.

In a letter yesterday to U.S. Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia, state Sen.
Clarence M. Mitchell IV called for a broad federal investigation into city
police misconduct, a request federal officials said they are reviewing.

While Battaglia forwarded Mitchell's letter to the Justice Department and
the city's FBI office, she said it is important to note that the corruption
case "surfaced through the [police] commissioner. ... I think there may be a
culture that is changing as we talk about the responsiveness from the
police."

Commissioner Edward T. Norris said a federal probe such as the one being
sought by Mitchell is unnecessary because the FBI is already working with
detectives from his department's Internal Affairs Division - at his
invitation.

"We caught somebody, and now I'm being criticized and calls are being made
for an independent investigation," Norris said.

Norris vowed yesterday to continue undercover stings such as the one that
led to his officer's arrest.

"I don't know where it's going to take us," he said.

Sheldon F. Greenberg, who runs the Police Executive Leadership Program at
the Johns Hopkins University, also noted that in this case, "the Police
Department cleaned its own house. To make a leap that there is systemic
corruption in the Baltimore Police Department is absurd."

But fallout from Sewell's arrest of Frederick L. McCoy, 18, continues to
reverberate throughout the city's law enforcement community.

The charges against Sewell, a six-year veteran assigned to the Central
District, came a month after an undercover sting conducted by internal
investigators.

Norris said detectives planted a bag of crack cocaine on a park bench in the
Druid Heights community and called the 311 nonemergency line to file a
complaint.

He said Sewell arrived, picked up the drugs and allegedly linked them a
short time later to a burglary suspect two blocks away. Sewell wrote in his
report that he saw McCoy "placing a clear plastic bag into a crack on a park
bench."

The officer's lawyer denounced

his client's arrest and questioned the tactics of the Internal Affairs
detectives.

Reached yesterday, Sewell declined to discuss specifics of the charges
lodged against him.

"There's a lot more circumstances," he said. "A lot more is going on than
what the Police Department is telling you." He said his arrest of McCoy "was
legitimate" but he declined to comment further.

Police commanders have said that Sewell was caught in a random sting that is
routinely carried out to expose corruption.

Department sources said yesterday that the sting was targeted at officers
working in crime-depressed neighborhoods of Upton, Madison Park and Druid
Heights, where commanders had concern about possible misconduct.

Defense lawyers say their clients, not usually the most reliable witnesses,
routinely claim evidence against them is fabricated - stories often
dismissed even by their own lawyers.

Harris, the public defender, said he has heard such complaints for years.
"Client after client, year after year, has said, 'I was standing there and
then [the police] said, 'I am going to put this on you."'

He said Baltimore is ripe for such abuse because officers know they will
rarely be placed under the scrutiny of cross-examination. Most cases in the
city's busy court system, he said, end in plea bargains, so officers rarely
have to take the witness stand.

Mitchell's letter to Battaglia requesting a broad federal probe into city
police practices says the problem is "too pervasive for a local
investigation."

His letter mentions another case in which he alleges evidence was planted:
the arrest of Omar K. Little, 27, on a gun possession charge on Nov. 10,
1998. Mitchell said a police officer, identified as Kevin Ruth, can
substantiate his claims and has been retaliated against by the department
for bringing allegations forward; Norris said yesterday that he will look
into the matter.

Little's lawyer, Thomas J. McNicholas, said his client was among several
people in an alley where a gun was found. He said charges against Little
were dropped after Little's cousins told federal prosecutors that they owned
the gun. The case was never pursued further.

"I didn't make the leap that it had been planted," McNicholas said
yesterday.

Battaglia also said FBI agents will interview Mitchell about allegations he
made in a press release Wednesday in which he stated: "I have known for 'a
fact' ... that there are officers of the Baltimore City Police Department
who are manufacturing cases, and in some cases, planting evidence on
innocent citizens."
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