Dallas has agreed to pay about $5.6 million to settle most of the federal lawsuits stemming from the police fake-drug scandal, said several people familiar with the deals. The settlement includes 16 of the 24 plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits alleging that narcotics officers and their supervisors violated their civil rights in the series of 2001 arrests in which paid police informants planted bogus drugs on innocent people. City Attorney Madeleine Johnson, who has supervised the settlement talks and is expected to announce the settlements today, could not be reached for comment. The cost to dispose of the cases before trial would be one of the largest legal payments by the city in recent memory. The city agreed several years ago to pay $5.5 million after several police supervisors sued after demotions by former Chief Terrell Bolton. The cost of the fake-drug cases could grow if the remaining plaintiffs settle or win claims before juries. "This is a great start to closing the chapter and putting the litigation behind everyone," said plaintiffs attorney Don Tittle, who got agreements for 12 of his 19 clients but declined to disclose the amounts. "But it's not over until the city decides to address the remaining cases of the other victims," he said. "Until those cases are resolved, the city still faces some tremendous financial exposure." The settlements, which were partially revealed last month, are no surprise. Two lawyers hired by the city to investigate the scandal released a scathing report stating that poor police supervision and shoddy detective work in the department's narcotics division led to the false arrests. Those arrests fit a pattern in which a cadre of corrupt informants hired by narcotics officers planted bundles of a white powder, sometimes billiards chalk, on immigrants, most of whom were Hispanic. That led detectives to make false felony arrests. Three informants went to federal prison for the scheme. They and others also face related criminal charges in state court. Several former narcotics officers are accused of evidence tampering related to police reports. The detective at the center of the arrests, former Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz, is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 28. No official has alleged that officers knowingly jailed innocent people. Sources said the settlement payouts to specific plaintiffs varied greatly, from about $100,000 to nearly $500,000. [more]