Pubdate: Fri, 08 Dec 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Jo Ann Zuniga

DEA CHIEF DENIES HALTING TASK FORCE

But He Says He Supported A Probe
Into Allegations By Rap-A-Lot

WASHINGTON - The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration
testified Thursday that he did not order its Houston office to stop an
investigation of a wealthy Houston rap music producer.

Donnie Marshall also told the House Committee on Government Reform
that he supported a probe of the producer's allegations that a DEA
task force investigating him was involved in racial profiling and harassment.

"We did learn that a gold necklace had been taken (from a suspect) and
was in the possession of a DEA agent," Marshall said.

He denied stopping the investigation of Rap-A-Lot recording company
and its founder and president, James A. Prince, because of Prince's
allegations, including one that Jack Schumacher, then the lead DEA
investigator, "slapped around" associates of the firm.

Marshall referred to a private investigator's report paid for by
Prince that detailed an incident in which three men driving in a
company van with the Rap-A-Lot logo were pulled over by a Houston
Police Department patrol car as they left a Houston club about 3 a.m.
Jan. 27, 1999.

A second car appeared with DEA agents Schumacher and partner Chad
Scott, and the three men were "physically abused, knocked around and
threatened," then taken to a DEA facility and strip-searched, the
private investigator's report stated.

No illegal narcotics were found, the report continued, but the trio
was questioned for several hours and one man's $1,200 gold chain and
medallion necklace was removed from his neck by Scott, who used it to
hit him.

Scott kept the necklace and returned it only under a supervisor's
order after an investigation. He was reprimanded for the incident, but
no action was taken against Schumacher.

After that incident and others in which Rap-A-Lot customers and
employees were allegedly pulled over, Prince complained to U.S. Rep.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif., that he was a victim of harassment from
"rogue" DEA agents and feared for his life. Waters forwarded the
complaint to the Department of Justice.

An Office of Professional Responsibility soon began an investigation,
and the task force of DEA agents and Houston police was then disbanded
by Ernest Howard, the DEA special agent-in-charge in Houston.

Congressional committee members questioned this sequence of events and
have interrogated DEA agents and HPD officers the past two days on
whether an investigation that had netted convictions of 20 of Prince's
associates was stopped because of political pressure. Two other DEA
agents and three HPD officers said that was the reason.

Committee members especially queried Howard about his testimony that
he only temporarily "suspended" the drug investigation pending the OPR
investigation and his e-mail to higher-ups in Washington on March 14
that "we are closing our case on Prince."

Howard, back for a second day of questioning, remained composed, but
his voice cracked as he testified: "I'm being told I'm a liar. I'm not
a liar. I know what the truth is.

"I've never been told to stop the case."

Howard said he only suspended it to protect his agents from further
allegations, possible violent confrontations and liability to the agency.

Howard, an African-American, said he also felt compelled to have the
racial profiling allegations seriously looked into.

"I know what driving while black is," he said. "I've been pulled over
before."

Marshall testified that Howard, out of frustration, told him: "It was
not worth the hassle. Maybe I should just shut the investigation down.

"I told him there is no way you can close down the investigation. He
sighed, took a deep breath and said, `I'm just frustrated. I'm blowing
off steam. Of course, you're right, we can't stop the investigation.'
"

But committee members said that suspending the drug investigation --
while informants were in place to make purchases and while there were
imminent arrests of suspects who might have "rolled over" -- was
tantamount to cutting the investigation "off at the knees."

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, attended Thursday's hearing
and was allowed to sit with the panel as a courtesy and address the
session.

"I have respect for all the officers and concern for their safety as
well," she said.

"I also know the Prince family and I have respect for the
contributions they still make to the Fifth Ward. It's important to
give balance here."

Jackson Lee also praised a Houston church mentioned in the
investigation, where Prince is a contributing member and where Vice
President Al Gore visited with her during a presidential campaign stop
March 12.

"I know the Brook Hollow church family, also known as the Church
Without Walls," Jackson Lee said. "That church offers redemption to
anyone who attends and offers an open pulpit, and that is the only
role the vice president had."

But harsher words came from committee chair Dan Burton, R-Ind., who told
Marshall: "I think the ball's been dropped -- and a lot of convictions and
other arrests that could have helped the community."

He was echoed by Christopher Shays, R-Conn. "Your agency doesn't look
good," Shays told Marshall. "It looks like a very viable investigation
was suspended, not closed, because a target was able to go to a member
of Congress, who went to the DOJ and your agency jumped overboard to
accommodate."

Marshall responded that he will continue to look into the case as well
as an ongoing inspector general's investigation. He asked for a closed
session with the committee members later to discuss details of the
investigation.
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