Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2004 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125 Author: David Ashenfelter, Free Press Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm ( Corruption - United States) COPS TESTIFY IN COLLEAGUES' TRIAL 2 Officers Are Accused of Planting Evidence and Lying in '01 Drug Arrest Three current or former Detroit police officers offered testimony Tuesday to show that two other officers lied about the circumstances of the 2001 arrest of a drug dealer suspect. The officers were questioned on the first day of testimony in the trial of eight police officers accused of planting evidence, falsifying reports and lying in court to justify the illegal arrests of suspected drug dealers in southwest Detroit in 2000-2002. Officer Raynell Rogers said she didn't speak up when she discovered at a 2002 court hearing for Bruce Toney that officers William Melendez and Timothy Gilbert had lied about the circumstances of Toney's arrest. "I was afraid of what would happen if I did," Rogers, then a rookie cop, told Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta. Rogers said she feared "being singled out as a squealer or tattletale." Toney, 45, was arrested at his house in the 200 block of Bayside on the night of Nov. 18, 2001. Prosecutors say Melendez and Gilbert forced their way into Toney's home without a search warrant and covered up by having another officer call 911 to report that two men were dragging women at gunpoint into Toney's home. Melendez and Gilbert said in reports and testified in district and circuit courts that Toney was leaving the home when they pulled up in response to the radio run. They said they patted him down and found a loaded .22 pistol and cocaine. Prosecutors said the 911 report gave them the legal pretext for stopping and searching Toney. Both officers said they never entered Toney's home. A jury in June 2002 convicted Toney on a cocaine charge and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, despite testimony from other witnesses who said the officers barged in without a warrant, found drugs and a gun, and arrested Toney. Toney was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, but released in December at the behest of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office after other officers contradicted Melendez and Gilbert. On Tuesday, Rogers, Officer Deonne Dotson and former Officer Craig Gregory testified that Melendez and Gilbert were inside Toney's home when they arrived and that Toney and two other people were being detained. The others were released. Gregory said he has high regard for Melendez, Gilbert and the other police defendants. He said he had seen Toney in the area involved with drugs. Gilbert's lawyer, James Howarth of Detroit, tried repeatedly during cross-examination to show that the officers' memories of the episodes were foggy. Dotson, who testified at Toney's hearing in December, conceded during that hearing that he couldn't remember Toney's address or other details. Melendez and Gilbert are among 16 officers charged in the case. The remaining officers are to be tried within a few months. The trial, which is expected to take two months, is to resume today. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake