Pubdate: Thu, 05 Sep 2002
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Maro Robbins, San Antonio Express-News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

EX-COP GETS PRISON TIME IN DRUG STING

A former police officer was sentenced Wednesday to more than five years in 
prison for agreeing to protect cocaine shipments and, in one instance, 
offering to transport a briefcase of narcotics in his squad car.

David Anthony Morales, who tried to commit suicide last month, appeared 
pale and said little before U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado handed him 
a sentence of five years, 10 months behind bars.

"I'm very sorry for what occurred," the 40-year-old said in a weak voice. 
"I did lose a lot."

Morales' lawyer Van Hilley said the former San Antonio patrol officer has 
lost his job, his reputation and his wife, also a police officer, since he 
stumbled into an FBI probe for police corruption.

"Unlike Job, who had Satan to blame for his troubles, David Morales has 
nobody to blame except the guy he sees in the mirror every morning," Hilley 
said.

Morales was one of 10 law-enforcement officers duped by undercover agents 
who posed as drug dealers intent on hiring badge-wearing bodyguards for 
drug transactions. Indicted last year, he quickly pleaded guilty.

Morales stood out as perhaps the most brazen of the rogue officers. Only he 
showed up to deliver drugs while in uniform and on duty. Agents once filmed 
him putting into his squad car a briefcase of what he believed was 22 
pounds of cocaine.

Agents also recorded him talking about how he would be willing to stand 
guard outside a drug stash house -- as long as he had an appropriate 
automatic rifle. As he daydreamed aloud, his police radio squawked in the 
background.

"He even delayed response to a call," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Counts 
said.

In court, there was no longer any spark of bravado visible in Morales, who 
has struggled with despair and spinal problems. He is recovering from back 
surgery as well as the suicide attempt.

Morales' despair was evident in the suicide note that he scrawled after 
swallowing all his prescription medication Aug. 12.

"When you send me to jail, I am asking for life because I have nothing here 
in society," he wrote.

In the next paragraph, Morales turned his bitterness on the undercover agents.

"I am not sorry for what occurred, because what the FBI (did) was wrong in 
violating my constitutional rights," he wrote.

Morales will remain in a psychiatric facility for evaluation until he can 
be assigned to a federal penitentiary, the judge said.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager