Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author:  Todd Bensman, The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?118 (Perjury)

DRUG CASE INFORMANTS MAKE DEAL

They'll Testify Of Police Link; Officer's Lawyer Doubts Story

A confidential police informant who pleaded guilty Wednesday to framing 
innocent people on drug charges will testify that his Dallas police 
handlers pocketed payments by forging vouchers. Another will say that 
police falsified reports, their attorneys say.

Jose Ruiz-Serrano and Reyes Roberto Rodriguez each accepted a deal under 
which they could plead guilty to a single civil-rights charge in exchange 
for cooperating with an FBI investigation into drug cases that were 
prosecuted with fake evidence.

Mr. Ruiz-Serrano and Mr. Rodriguez worked as subcontractors for Enrique 
Alonso, who was indicted Wednesday for allegedly violating the civil rights 
of 13 people arrested in the drug cases.

Mr. Alonso, the primary informant in the cases, had not accepted a plea 
offer by Wednesday, his attorney said

Documents made public thus far do not implicate any officers, but attorneys 
for the two informants who agreed to plead guilty said their clients would 
link police to the fake drugs.

An attorney representing Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz, one of two narcotics 
officers involved in some of the 80 drug cases dismissed so far, questioned 
the credibility of the two informants. An attorney for Officer Eddie 
Herrera declined to comment. The two officers have been on paid 
administrative leave since January, when the FBI began its investigation. 
"I don't think ... [the informants] can get away at all with this business 
of pocketing the cash and forging names," said Bob Baskett, who is 
representing Cpl. Delapaz. "They can say most anything if they think it's 
going to help them. Either everybody had to be in on the deal, or they're 
just flat lying.

"My bet is they're lying, versus everyone associated with them being in on 
the scam."

Cpl. Delapaz and Officer Herrera have not been accused of any crime, and 
government officials have not said whether the two officers or any others 
from the narcotics unit are under investigation.

Enrique Alonso Police officials have declined to comment on the cases 
because of the ongoing federal investigation.

Mr. Ruiz-Serrano and Mr. Rodriguez would face revocation of their plea 
agreements and years of additional prison time if they are found later to 
have committed perjury, and FBI officials said any testimony from the 
informants would be rigorously tested against other evidence gathered in 
the case.

Guilty To Conspiracy

The two men pleaded guilty to conspiring to package billiards chalk, plant 
it on or near unsuspecting bystanders and provide authorities with false 
information that led to the arrests and prosecutions of dozens of innocent 
people, including many Mexican laborers.

Reyes Roberto Rodriguez Court documents said that between October 1999 and 
January, narcotics supervisors authorized officers to pay large sums of 
city money to all three undercover informants, based on the volume of drugs 
seized. More than $250,000 was paid before lab tests began showing that 
evidence listed as real drugs was billiards chalk in dozens of cases, the 
records said.

William Nellis, Mr. Ruiz-Serrano's attorney, said his client will live up 
to the terms of the plea bargain by telling FBI investigators that police 
narcotics officers, whose names he declined to reveal Wednesday, forged at 
least 35 department pay vouchers for $24,000 supposedly paid to Mr. 
Ruiz-Serrano.

"To what extent law enforcement knew these drugs were fake, I don't know. 
But they forged my client's signature on $24,000. It went straight into 
their pockets," Mr. Nellis said after the plea deal was signed.

Mr. Nellis declined to disclose the names of police supervisors and 
officers who handled the pay vouchers.

Jose Ruiz-Serrano Through an open-records request this year, The Dallas 
Morning News obtained copies of more than 50 pay vouchers to confidential 
informants working for Cpl. Delapaz or Officer Herrera. City officials 
blacked out the names and signatures of the arresting officer and the 
informants who were being paid from $20 to as much as $50,000 cash for 
setting up drug stings.

Differences In Details

The payments listed for those vouchers in 2000 and 2001 totaled more than 
$254,000. Officials did not black out the names of officers witnessing the 
pay transactions. In those instances, Officer Herrera witnessed 54 payments 
by Cpl. Delapaz to informants. Cpl. Delapaz witnessed three pay 
transactions by Officer Herrera to informants.

Mr. Rodriguez will tell investigators that many details of the drug busts 
were different from the events described by police narcotics officers in 
the affidavits they submitted to prosecutors, said his attorney, Karl Rupp.

"He can attest that events alleged to have been witnessed by police 
officers in their arrest reports did not take place," he said.

Mr. Rodriguez worked as a subcontractor to the other informants and had no 
direct dealings with police officers, Mr. Rupp said. Mr. Rodriguez cannot 
say whether police officers knew that the informants were planting packages 
of fake drugs, he said.

Mr. Rodriguez's allegation that police officers submitted inaccurate 
reports is similar to allegations in a lawsuit filed by 10 of the victims 
last spring.

Don Tittle, the attorney representing plaintiffs in the pending lawsuit 
against the city and officers, said many of the police affidavits 
associated with the cases differed greatly from the accounts of those arrested.

'Explaining To Do'

"The fact that the reports contain very specific recitations of facts that 
never occurred means that either the cops knowingly made false reports, or 
they very carelessly relied on people who were making up facts all along 
and never bothered to check," he said. "It means, at best, they're 
incompetent, and at worst they're criminals. "The police have an 
unbelievable amount of explaining to do," Mr. Tittle said.

The FBI's acting special agent in charge of the Dallas office, Ed 
Lueckenhoff, declined to discuss what help the informants may be prepared 
to offer. He said the bureau will examine whether police officers conspired 
with the informants.

"We are not going to simply accept information from these individuals 
without thoroughly assessing and testing it for accuracy," Agent 
Lueckenhoff said. "We work every day in a positive manner with the Dallas 
Police Department, and no one in the FBI will assume guilt on the part of 
one of their officers part without clear proof."

Staff writer Tim Wyatt contributed to this report.

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