Dallas settling fake-drug lawsuits - Police Sold Fake Drugs to Latino Men
/The city of Dallas has agreed to
settle at least four of the nine federal civil-rights lawsuits stemming
from the fake-drug scandal. The monetary payouts to those plaintiffs
four Hispanic men falsely arrested in 2001 were not disclosed
Tuesday. All of the cases were scheduled for trials in the next several
months. The agreements are a signal that most, if not all, of the
remaining lawsuits could soon be settled. That would close another
chapter in the embarrassing 2001 scandal in which more than two-dozen
innocent people went to jail based on bogus drug evidence. Court
records show that settlement talks continue in several of the remaining
lawsuits. They generally accuse the city and former police officials
involved in the series of bogus arrests of civil-rights violations or
of creating an environment that allowed them. "We've made significant
progress," City Attorney Madeline Johnson said Tuesday, declining to
comment specifically about the settlements. "I'm confident that we will
bring closure to most of those cases in the near future." The cost of
any settlements related to the scandal would be made public once all
the deals are finalized, she said. Two of the four settlements, handled
by plaintiff's attorney Tony Wright of Dallas, were disclosed in
federal court records. Mr. Wright confirmed Tuesday that his clients in
two other cases also had reached agreements with the city.
- FAKE DRUGS , real lives: Dallas
Police Department officials initially proclaimed 2001 a banner year for
drug busts, reportedly seizing 1,440 pounds of cocaine and 238 pounds
of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $65 million. An
investigation however, discovered that nearly half the cocaine and a
quarter of the methamphetamine seizures contained little or no illegal
drugs. Through extensive interviews while tracking lab results and
court records, WFAA-TV found that a key ingredient in at least several
seizures was gypsum, the main component of Sheetrock.
- The suspects in the "fake drug"
cases often were curiously similar. Most were recent Mexican immigrants
working as auto mechanics or day laborers; few spoke English or had
prior criminal records. Often, the alleged drugs were found in duffel
or trash bags inside vehicles parked at auto shops or loaned to the
suspect.Many suspects only learned that they faced drug charges days
after their arrests. Most, if not all, claimed to have never seen the
alleged drugs; several passed polygraphs when asked if they knew about
the seized items. [more]
