Pubdate: Tue, 28 Mar 2006
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Matthew Dolan, Sun Reporter

CITY DETECTIVE SPEAKS OUT AT CORRUPTION TRIAL

One of two Baltimore narcotics detectives accused of selling illegal 
drugs testified at his federal trial yesterday that confiscated 
heroin he gave to a confidential informant was part of an 
off-the-books, but acceptable, policing technique designed to 
apprehend some of the city's top drug dealers.

In front of an expectant jury that had before heard the officer's 
voice only on wiretap recordings, Detective William A. King answered 
questions from the witness stand for more than four hours. But his 
calm demeanor turned testy and defensive when prosecutors called his 
tactics criminal, leading to the most combative moments of the two-week trial.

"I never robbed anybody," King said, leaning forward in his chair, 
his arms crossed slightly, testifying for the first time. "I gave [an 
informant] drugs, but in return he gave me the information I needed."

At one point, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz ordered a brief 
recess because the heated cross-examination of King by Assistant U.S. 
Attorney Charles Peters had turned into a shouting match.

"Why didn't you write a report?" Peters asked King, one of many times 
the prosecutor hammered the officer for failing to document his 
activity with his sources.

King responded that only some of his drug seizures needed to be 
reported officially, while others could be channeled to his informants.

King's account offered the first detailed counterpoint to the complex 
public corruption case presented by federal prosecutors. King's 
attorney Edward Smith Jr. called two other witnesses - both former 
city police officers - as part of the first day of testimony from the defense.

Relying on testimony from cooperating witnesses and hours of secretly 
recorded conversations by the FBI, prosecutors accused King and his 
partner, Antonio L. Murray, of conspiring to rob and extort cocaine, 
heroin and marijuana - as well as drug-related proceeds - from 
suspects they pursued on city streets in late 2004 and early 2005.

King maintained that he never robbed anyone, never sold drugs for 
money and never brandished his weapon, as charged. He argued that 
prosecutors misinterpreted his taped conversations. King defended his 
drug enforcement strategy with informants as a "deceit" to keep them 
happy and productive.

He agreed that he might have broken department rules and regulations 
when he gave seized drugs and money to informants Antonio Mosby and 
Davon Mayer. Mosby earlier pleaded guilty to related drug charges and 
testified against King.

King called his policing tactic an "acceptable procedure," which had 
been tacitly approved inside the Police Department under former 
Commissioner Kevin P. Clark.

Clark had created the department's beefed-up Organized Crime Division 
- - a unit of largely plainclothes officers that focused on undercover 
drug buys where Murray and King both served - but it was 
de-emphasized after Clark was fired in November 2004. Mayor Martin 
O'Malley hired Clark from New York in 2002 to eradicate open-air drug markets.

King said that after he received training from police officials in 
New York, he changed the way he submitted evidence.

"Sometimes you submit the [seized drugs and money]," he said. 
"Sometimes you don't."

Several police officials testified earlier in the trial on behalf of 
the government, saying that under no conditions would an officer be 
allowed to take seized drugs and hand them over to an informant as a reward.

King said he never shared the profits from the drugs he provided to 
his informants, and his only reward was information about large 
stashes of illegal drugs and high-level drug dealers, largely on the 
city's west side.

His take, King explained, was no take at all. He said he held the 
money for his informants only because they were too quick to spend 
their money on drugs, and he was concerned about their welfare.

If he had been a drug dealer, King argued, he would have been 
wealthier. King said FBI agents found $221 on the detective when they 
arrested him in May 2005. His bank accounts were almost dry, he owed 
the IRS money in back taxes and a local jeweler thousands of dollars 
for purchases still unpaid, according to his testimony and financial records.

King had been presented by prosecutors as a law-breaking police 
officer who had carved out a side business as a drug dealer. But in 
his testimony yesterday, King, a West Baltimore native, had his first 
chance to tell jurors his side.

"I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps," King said yesterday, 
describing why he wanted to become a city police officer after a 
stint in the Army. "I wanted to give back to the community I grew up in."

King said the training from police experts in New York was a 
transformational moment. King said he employed the new tactics during 
his successful drug busts.

His testimony is expected to continue this morning.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman