Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 22:15:53 -0800 : : : : Pubdate: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2000, The Tribune Co. Contact: P.O. Box 191, Tampa, FL 33601 Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Forum: http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm Section: Florida Metro page 2 Author: Sarah Huntley of The Tampa Tribune TAMPA LAWYER WANTS HIGHWAY PATROL TROOPERS INVESTIGATED TAMPA - An attorney asks a state law enforcement commission to look into false affidavit allegations against two troopers. A prominent Tampa defense lawyer is asking the state commission that polices Florida's police officers to investigate the case of two highway patrol troopers who signed a misleading arrest report under oath. The lawyer, Norman Cannella, sent a formal complaint to the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission in Tallahassee late Wednesday, saying that Troopers Douglas Strickland and Bruce Hutcheson violated the laws they were sworn to uphold. ``It is inconceivable to me Troopers Strickland and Hutcheson can, with impunity, violate the oath they took when they first placed their badges on their chest,'' he said in his complaint. Cannella played no role in the case, but said he was outraged because the highway patrol has not disciplined the officers. Jim Murphey, chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Bureau of Standards, had not received Cannella's letter Thursday but said the commission typically refers ``verifiable'' citizen complaints to the agency that employs the officers. Then the agency investigates and sends all its documentation to the commission for additional review. The commission's 19 members, most of whom were appointed by the governor, have the power to ``decertify officers,'' an administrative process in which officers are barred from further work in law enforcement. If an officer is convicted of a felony or a lesser offense involving lying on the job, the commission must revoke his license, Murphey said. In the FHP case, neither trooper has been charged with a crime. Cannella's letter followed a decision by U.S. Attorney Donna Bucella on Feb. 25 to dismiss a federal cocaine case against three men who were indicted after the two officers searched a car stalled on the shoulder on Interstate 4 near Lakeland. Although the troopers found 220 pounds of cocaine in the trunk, Bucella said prosecutors could not proceed with the case without ``moral tarnish.'' The dismissal led to the release of two defendants, Norman Dupont and Dewey Davis, from jail. A third defendant, Michael Flynn, 40, of Orlando, was already out on bail. Bucella acted after considering testimony Strickland gave during a hearing Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court in Tampa. The trooper acknowledged he concealed information from the arrest report, hoping to hide the circumstances that led him to search the car on May 19, 1998. Strickland's report, filed with a Polk County judge, made it sound as if he happened across the vehicle by chance and ``grew suspicious'' only because Flynn wouldn't open the trunk. What the report did not say was that the arrest resulted from a reverse sting set up by the FBI - that he already knew the cocaine was there because he'd watched undercover agents load it earlier that day. He also knew the FBI had rigged the vehicle with a remote-control switch that killed the engine and was the reason it stalled. Strickland testified he and other troopers regularly filed incomplete reports when assisting federal agents to prevent the suspects from discovering they were the targets of an ongoing sting. Hutcheson has not testified about the controversial practice but assisted in the search of Flynn's car and signed the affidavit. Highway Patrol Maj. Ken Howes had not seen the complaint Thursday, but said internal investigators launched a review of the case shortly after Strickland testified. That review has not been completed, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson