Pubdate: Sat, 15 Nov 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: ROBERT THARP, and MATT STILES, The Dallas Morning News

FAKE-DRUG TRIAL WITNESS WEEPS

He Describes Arrest, Saying Ex-Detective's Statements Were False

Victor Alvarado wept at the witness stand Friday, telling jurors about what 
he said were false statements by a narcotics detective that led to his 
arrest two years ago on charges of selling cocaine.

The 26-year-old father of three is one of at least two dozen victims of 
bogus drug busts in 2001 involving former Dallas detective Mark Delapaz, 
prosecutors said. Mr. Alvarado is the second of four expected to testify in 
the federal criminal trial, which began Wednesday.

Mr. Delapaz, who defense attorneys have said is an honest officer who was 
duped by a group of crooked confidential informants, is accused of lying in 
arrest warrant affidavits and to prosecutors when he said he saw people 
involved in transactions of what he believed to be drugs. The white powdery 
substance actually was pool chalk.

Nearing the end of his 90 minutes of testimony Friday, Mr. Alvarado began 
to cry, his face turning red as he reached for tissue and talked about the 
effect of his arrest on himself and his family.

"They were accusing me of selling drugs," Mr. Alvarado said through a court 
interpreter. "I never sold anything."

He told jurors how uniformed police officers descended on an Old East 
Dallas auto repair shop where he and a friend were retrieving tools for a 
construction job.

Mr. Alvarado said he had no idea what was happening that day in April 2001, 
but he was quickly taken behind the business ­ at East Grand and Fitzhugh 
avenues ­ and strip-searched.

In an arrest warrant, Mr. Delapaz stated that he observed a confidential 
informant give Mr. Alvarado $2,500 in marked money in exchange for a clear 
plastic bag containing drugs.

Mr. Alvarado and two other witnesses testified Friday that the events 
described never happened. The Dallas Police Department's marked money for 
the purchase was never recovered.

Asked why he had named Mr. Delapaz in a civil lawsuit asking for $2.5 
million, Mr. Alvarado said: "He's the one who was doing all that against me."

Prosecutors contend that Mr. Alvarado was one of the first victims in the 
informants' fake-drug scheme. In his case, the informants created the fake 
drug bust with the intention of stealing the drug-purchase money supplied 
to them by the Police Department, prosecutors say.

Later, according to testimony, the informants grew bolder and began 
fabricating large amounts of fake drugs to plant on innocent victims. The 
seizures grew because the informants were promised $1,000 for every 
kilogram of narcotics they could help police seize, prosecutors said.

Mr. Delapaz is not accused of taking part in the conspiracy to arrest 
innocent people, but prosecutors charge that plan could not have happened 
without the officer's false statements about witnessing the transactions in 
police reports and to county prosecutors.

Those fictitious reports amount to a violation of the victims' 
constitutional rights against false arrest, according to the charge. 
Federal prosecutors also charged him with lying to an FBI agent. He faces 
10 years in prison if convicted.

In testimony earlier Friday, Vanessa Gwyn said Mr. Delapaz returned her 
telephone call on Sept. 17, 2001, several days after he had arrested her 
mother.

The call came after Mr. Delapaz had learned that a kilo of the drugs 
confiscated during Yvonne Gwyn's arrest had tested as fake, according to 
testimony. Still, her daughter told jurors, Mr. Delapaz urged her to have 
her mother talk to police.

"He basically told me that ... she needed to come clean, and if she didn't, 
she would spend the rest of her life in jail," the daughter testified.

Lab officials later discovered that another 29 kilos found in a car at Ms. 
Gwyn's auto shop also were fake.

The trial, which could last until mid-December, resumes Monday morning.
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