Pubdate: Wed, 10 Apr 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
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1836/a07.html

DA URGED TO UNDO CONVICTIONS OF 2 TIED TO FAKE-DRUG CASES

Prosecutors Say Informants Tainted But Evidence Was Real

A group of civil rights advocates and elected officials Thursday urged 
Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill to take steps to free two men 
imprisoned since they were caught up in the fake-drug scandal.

The county prosecutor's office agreed in its earliest motions that drug 
convictions of Jaime Chavez and Manuel Rodriguez Garcia should be 
overturned even though real drug evidence was involved in their cases.

Both men, serving long prison sentences, were among dozens of people 
convicted on the strength of testimony from Dallas police confidential 
informants who have confessed to planting fake drugs.

But Mr. Hill's office has said prosecutors are strictly following the 
letter of the law in the cases, which required procedures different from 
other dismissed cases and which puts the issue of undoing the convictions 
in the state's highest criminal appeals court.

First Assistant District Attorney Mike Carnes said Thursday that his office 
was less enthusiastic about working to free the two men because their cases 
involved real drug evidence, not fake drugs, even though the implicated 
informants were involved.

"These are different because they have final convictions, and final 
convictions pose a large obstacle," Mr. Carnes said. "The fact is that the 
convictions are good. Both are guilty of the charges. The facts were proven."

Advocates for the two men said Thursday that Mr. Hill should have provided 
the same legal support for them as for prisoners who won speedy releases 
two years ago after police Officers Quentis Roper and Daniel Maples were 
convicted of corruption.

Supporters of Jaime Chavez and Manuel Rodriguez Garcia rallied for their 
release Thursday during a news conference outside the courthouse in Dallas.

"As a former prosecutor, I know what a prosecutor's duty is, and it's to 
make sure justice is done," said Dallas City Council member John Loza. 
"It's not to make sure he gets convictions or to make sure people are put 
in jail, but to make sure that justice is done. Justice has not been done 
in these cases. These people deserve to be freed from all charges."

Attending the news conference on the courthouse steps were state Rep. 
Domingo Garcia and Dallas school trustee Ron Price. Mr. Garcia said later 
Thursday that he had not known that real drugs were involved in the two 
men's cases.

More than 85 cases that required testimony from the tainted informants and 
their temporarily suspended police officer handlers have been dismissed. 
Many of the cases were pending and were quickly dismissed because they 
would have depended on the credibility of officers and informant testimony.

Other cases were already closed but were quickly dismissed with the support 
of prosecutors because the drug evidence was discovered to be ground gypsum 
planted by the informants.
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