Pubdate: Fri, 01 Feb 2002
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobile/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Joe Danborn

JURY WEIGHS FATE OF FORMER DETECTIVES

One-Time Prichard Narcotics Officers Accused Of Racketeering

Former Prichard narcotics detectives Frederick Pippins and Anthony Diaz 
will begin this day waiting for a federal jury in Mobile to convict or 
acquit them of racketeering.

The feeling isn't new.

Pippins and Diaz -- along with four other former colleagues -- waited three 
days in October while another jury argued over their fate, but they never 
got an an swer. That panel deadlocked, forcing a mistrial.

The other four defendants -- former Lt. James Stallworth, former Sgt. John 
Stuckey and former detectives Derek Gillis and Nathan McDuffie -- pleaded 
guilty Jan. 4 and agreed to testify for the prosecution. Their deals call 
for them to receive sentences ranging from probation to three-year prison 
terms.

Pippins and Diaz, who reportedly declined similar offers, went back on 
trial Monday. Jurors heard closing arguments and began deliberations late 
Thursday.

If convicted on the most serious counts, Diaz could face more than 15 years 
in prison; Pippins could face up to nine years.

The charges involve allegations that Pippins, Diaz and the others took cash 
and other property from drug suspects in exchange for letting them go.

"They stopped prosecuting cases," Justice Department prosecutor Rita Glavin 
told the jury in her closing statement. "They stopped fighting the war on 
drugs. And they crossed the line."

Defense lawyers stuck with the idea that their clients were unfairly lumped 
in with the other former officers.

"You can't convict by guilt by association, and that's what the government 
is trying to get you to do," Diaz's lawyer, Lila Cleveland, told jurors.

Pippins' lawyer, Willie Huntley, noted that his client had not been 
indicted in two instances when witnesses testified he stole car stereo 
equipment from them. He attacked prosecutors' decision not to bring charges 
in those instances, examples of what is known in legal circles as uncharged 
conduct. Prosecutors commonly present evidence of such matters in an 
attempt to show a pattern of illicit behavior.

"They know the rest of their case is really weak, so they gotta bring 
something in to bolster it," Huntley said.

On Tuesday, Stallworth provided what might have been damning testimony 
against Pippins, the godfather of his son, saying the two men divvied up 
$7,000 in drug money. But Huntley waylaid Stallworth's credibility by 
producing a tape of a month-old telephone call, secret ly recorded by 
Pippins, that Stallworth swore he could not remember.

Huntley told jurors they should disregard all of Stallworth's statements 
because he lied about the phone call. Prosecutors told the jury that the 
tape -- on which Stallworth tried to assure Pippins that he had not 
cooperated with authorities -- only proved how difficult that cooperation 
was for Stallworth.

On Wednesday, prosecutors called into question Pippins' finances, with 
testimony from an FBI analyst about what she termed unexplained cash. 
Huntley countered with three business licenses Pippins held, enabling him 
to cut lawns and hawk clothing.

Prosecutors pointed out that the licenses were invalid for all but a small 
period of the time in question.

"The reason he didn't need a license to peddle is he had a license to 
steal, and it was in the form of a Prichard Police Department badge," 
Glavin said Thursday.

Glavin pointed jurors to testimony from witnesses who said Diaz took cash 
out of their pockets during two gambling raids in 1999. Cleveland assailed 
the testimony as unbelievable because it came from drug dealers and 
addicts, including one man, Michael Bush, who testified Thursday afternoon 
that he had smoked crack cocaine Thursday morning.

Glavin told the jury Bush's candor was precisely why they should believe him.

Deliberations are set to resume this morning around 9 a.m. at the federal 
courthouse downtown on St. Joseph Street. The trial has been held in Chief 
U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr.'s courtroom on the second floor.
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