Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Copyright: 2004 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.thedailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/informant

CASE VS. LEWIS FACES POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Delay In Filing Charges May Influence Verdict

ATLANTA - The government could have a tough time proving its drug
conspiracy case against Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis
because of the length of time it took to file charges, legal experts
say.

The charges filed Wednesday were within the five-year statute of
limitations. But a jury may ask why it took so long when authorities
claim to have two taped conversations from June 2000 in which Lewis
tried to broker a cocaine deal, say two former federal prosecutors and
a law school professor.

"A jury will consider the passage in time in evaluating the
government's evidence," said John Rowley, former chief of the
narcotics section for the U.S. Attorney's office in Alexandria, Va.
"The jury may well refuse to convict on merely one or two
conversations without corroborating evidence of some kind." Jim Cohen,
director of the clinical law program at Fordham law school in New
York, agreed.

"I think time is not the government's friend in this case," Cohen
said. "Absent intervening stuff, the jury is going to be very
suspicious."

Lewis remained free on bail Friday. The Atlanta native is charged with
conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms of
cocaine and using a cell phone in violation of federal law. If
convicted of conspiracy, Lewis could face 10 years to life in prison.

The wild card in the case could be the tapes.

The FBI says an informant contacted Lewis on his cell phone on June
23, 2000, to discuss selling cocaine to the player and his childhood
friend, Angelo Jackson. Hours after the call, Lewis and Jackson met
with the informant at an Atlanta restaurant.

Both conversations were taped, the FBI says.

At the restaurant, Lewis and Jackson asked the informant how much
cocaine the informant was capable of distributing, the FBI alleges.
Jackson and the informant met again three weeks later at a gas station
and discussed drugs, but no purchase was made and Lewis wasn't at that
meeting, an FBI affidavit says.

Jackson had several more conversations with the informant and an
undercover FBI agent, but Lewis was not part of those conversations,
court papers say.

Kent Alexander, a former U.S. Attorney for Atlanta, said the tapes
will tell a lot.

He said the credibility of the informant is likely to be called into
question by the defense, but at the same time, Lewis' own words may be
hard to overcome.

"If there are tapes, the tapes play just as well as they would four
years ago," Alexander said. "It's when witnesses have to testify from
memory that things get a little sketchier."

The government could argue that it waited so long to charge Lewis
because it was conducting a larger investigation that would have been
jeopardized if details were released earlier.
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