Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source: Florida Times-Union (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The Florida Times-Union
Contact:  http://www.times-union.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/155
Author: Jim Schoettler

CONVICT SEEKS NEW TRIAL AFTER COP'S INDICTMENT

DEFUNIAK SPRINGS -- If career criminal Darryl Arnold is to be believed, 
Aric Sinclair was recruiting people to peddle crack cocaine before he ever 
put on a Jacksonville police badge.

Arnold, whose 25 arrests range from drug selling to battery, is serving 26 
years in prison for a drug conviction involving Sinclair. Arnold is hoping 
to get a new trial by attacking Sinclair's credibility, which was heavily 
damaged after he was charged in a 24-count federal indictment with murder, 
robbery, drug-selling and obstructing justice while working as a police 
officer.

In an interview at Walton Correctional Institution Wednesday, Arnold said 
he turned down an offer by Sinclair to sell crack cocaine while Sinclair 
was working as his probation officer. Sinclair worked as a Salvation Army 
probation officer in Jacksonville from February 1992 to December 1993, when 
he became a police officer. All records of Sinclair's probation work have 
been destroyed as part of routine housecleaning allowed by state law.

Arnold said he suspects his refusal to sell the drugs, and several run-ins 
with Sinclair before and since then, motivated Sinclair to falsely identify 
him in a 1998 drug bust that ended with the 26-year prison sentence. 
Sinclair's lawyers and the prosecutor in the 1998 case say Arnold is making 
up a story to exploit Sinclair's current troubles.

Arnold's story may sound far-fetched, especially since a second detective 
with Sinclair on the bust later identified Arnold as the drug seller. But 
prosecutors, who last week overturned Theodis Hagans' life prison sentence 
for shooting at Sinclair because of questions about Sinclair's motive in 
engaging Hagans, have said they will consider a request from Arnold's 
public defender for a new trial.

"If they're going to find a person guilty, they should have credible 
witnesses," Arnold said. "By him [Sinclair] not being credible, the trial 
is tainted because he can say anything. He's been after me for so long. I 
should at least get a new trial."

Stephen Weinbaum, a lawyer for Sinclair, said he's not surprised that 
convicts arrested by any of the indicted officers are pleading their cases. 
He said that continued negative publicity is tainting the potential jury 
pool for the federal trial, scheduled for October, and will likely end up 
in a defense request to move the trial from Jacksonville.

"It's getting to be a big bandwagon. As soon as the Hagans case broke, 
everyone who's ever been arrested by Sinclair thinks they can get a new 
trial," Weinbaum said. "He's [Arnold] a career criminal. To paraphrase 
Charles Laughton in Witness for the Prosecution, if the clerk tried to 
swear this man to tell the truth, the Bible would probably leap from his hand."

Arnold joins a list of convicts and former police officers who claim 
they've either worked with Sinclair in stealing or selling drugs or have 
been wronged by Sinclair for interrupting his drug trade.

Chief Assistant Public Defender Bill White said last week his office plans 
to review about 120 arrests made by Sinclair to determine if any appear 
tainted. He said he expects to find very few cases to pursue, especially 
since none of those defendants has contacted his office for help.

"Just because it's Sinclair, it's not going to get thrown out," White said. 
"If it has something to do with drugs where you show you believe he was 
involved with drugs, then it's up to the level where you go to the State 
Attorney's Office. But if he's just busting a person breaking into a car, 
there's nothing that's going to cause any court to throw a case out."

To be sure, there are some inconsistencies in Arnold's allegations. In his 
interview, he initially said he wasn't selling drugs at the time of his 
1998 arrest. He later said he had been given drugs to sell on several 
occasions but used the drugs rather than pay the person who fronted them to 
him.

He also said he was with his girlfriend and best friend at the time 
Sinclair said he was selling drugs, but his alibi fell apart when neither 
witness could be found for trial. They have yet to turn up.

But there are other parts of Arnold's story that fit an emerging pattern of 
illegal activity outlined about Sinclair in the indictment, court records 
and witness interviews.

Arnold said he was recruited by Sinclair to sell drugs, matching stories 
told by Hagans and others associated with Sinclair. Arnold also said 
Sinclair harassed him, much like others who crossed the ex-officer's path 
have described. And, Arnold said he witnessed Sinclair standing in the yard 
of an Eastside home as drug dealing was going on in full view, similar to 
information mentioned in a court hearing involving Sinclair.

Arnold, 35, and Sinclair, 32, grew up a few blocks apart on the Eastside, 
but were never really close friends. The first bad blood between the two 
occurred when Sinclair got angry that Arnold was courting Sinclair's 
sister, Honey, and using crack cocaine with her, Arnold said.

He said years passed before he met Sinclair at the probation office. Arnold 
said Sinclair asked him if he was working, which he wasn't. What happened 
next, Arnold said, left him stunned.

"He slid back, went into his desk and pulled out some dope [crack 
cocaine]," Arnold said. "He said, 'Sell that for me and make you a little 
money until you find a job.' I was like, 'No, I don't want that.' I had 
just gotten out of jail. I was thinking he was trying to set me up. He just 
looked at me ... and put it back in his drawer."

Arnold kept the episode to himself. "There were times I could have gone to 
the Sheriff's Office, but they probably wouldn't have believed me," he said.

He said his next run-in with Sinclair occurred a few years later, possibly 
in 1995, when Arnold was picked up as a burglary suspect. He said Sinclair 
told an officer to arrest him since he matched the description of the 
suspect. The victims later said Arnold was the wrong man. Arnold said 
Sinclair threatened to catch up with him another day.

Arnold said it wasn't until he was arrested on a drug warrant in June 1998 
that he learned Sinclair followed through on his promise. The arrest came 
about three weeks after Sinclair and detective Lavall Thomas said Arnold 
sold crack cocaine to Thomas on an Eastside street.

Sinclair said Arnold bolted on his bicycle after seeing him in a car. 
Thomas, who testified he saw part of the man's face, pulled a mug shot 
based on Sinclair's identification of Arnold and said, 'That's him,' court 
records said.

Arnold's public defender, Susan Brooks, argued that Sinclair wrongly 
identified Arnold and gave the wrong impression about how well he knew him, 
such as falsely testifying that the two went to the same high school.

Curtis Pajcic, who prosecuted Arnold, said the identification by Thomas 
makes him certain he prosecuted the right person.

"Based upon the allegations I've heard with regard to detective Sinclair, 
if those turn out to be true and he were my only eyewitness, I would have 
doubts," said Pajcic, now a private defense attorney. "However, the person 
who he [Arnold] made the hand-to-hand, eye-to-eye sale with was another 
detective, who is an excellent officer. He made it absolutely clear to me 
he independently identified the individual. I have no doubt."

Thomas declined to comment.

White, of the Public Defender's Office, said Sinclair's role in the 
identification is reason enough for a new trial. "We believe that the 
separate witness was not independent, that he was heavily influenced by 
Sinclair and that Sinclair had a bad motive for giving his input," White said.

Brooks pleaded with prosecutors after Sinclair's arrest to give Arnold a 
new trial, but the request was rejected based on Thomas's testimony. Brooks 
said this month she is putting together a more thorough case for 
prosecutors and will try again.

Meanwhile, Darryl Arnold continues to serve out his sentence at the prison 
280 miles west of home. He is eligible for release in 2020.

"I just pray to God that one day they will see what the truth is," Arnold 
said. "I wouldn't want to be alive and do all this time."
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