DPD informant says she planted fake drugs
Woman also accuses officer of policy violations
06:35 AM CDT on Friday, September 10, 2004
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV
A Dallas police informant involved in one of the fake-drug cases from three years ago said she knowingly planted fake drugs on innocent people.
She also accuses the officer she worked with of several violations of department policy.
The allegations against Dallas officer David Larsen are not new, and his attorneys said he has already been cleared by an internal affairs investigation. However, this is the first time the informant has spoken out, and some said what she is saying raises new questions about how Dallas narcotics detectives conduct business.
Also Online
1/31/02: Fake-drug case takes new turn
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8/7/02: Suit alleges man was wrongly targeted for drug search
Timeline: Fake Drugs, Real Lives
Video: Brett Shipp reports
In January 2002, News 8 first reported that fake drugs were planted on two people arrested in a West Dallas raid. The officer and informant involved were not the same two involved in all the other "fake drug" cases; this time it was Larsen and his informant Mary Deal.
Larsen and Deal worked together on another questionable case, which involved the January 2002 raid on Dwaine Lord's house.
"(The) 'bam,' I guess was my door being kicked open, and I started to get up, and that's when the grenade went off and it blew me out of the bed," Lord said.
During that raid, however, no drugs were found at all, and no arrest was made. Lord is now suing Larsen and Deal, alleging they conspired to set him up.
Lord's attorney Doug Larson said there are numerous holes in the police reports.
"There are a lot of discrepancies," he said.
A drug buy report dated January 8 indicates Deal visited Lord's house and paid $400 for 17 grams of heroin, which field-tested positive.
However, the search warrant affidavit said the buy was made on January 9, and two Latin American males were in charge of the premises. On January 11, Deal allegedly went back to the house and paid a white male $750 for 27.4 grams of heroin, which again field-tested positive.
When police raided the house, they found no drugs, and no mention of what happened to the $750 Deal allegedly used to buy the drugs. Lord said he was roughed up, but set free.
So if they field-tested the drugs positive on that day, why didn't Lord go to jail?
"Good question, I don't know the answer to that," attorney Larson said. "Something smells rotten about this whole thing."
What also smells bad, according to Larson, are conflicting signatures for officer David Larsen on two different drug buy reports from 1999.
In a sworn declaration, Mary Deal claimed she used to "get money from Officer David Larsen by simply calling him and telling him she was in need of cash."
Deal said she "can only remember a couple of occasions when there was a witness present when Officer Larsen was paying her reward money." That would be an apparent violation of department policy.
Deal also said in some of the cases, "the substances seized by Officer Larsen were not actual drugs but rather 'fake drugs' planted on an unsuspecting individual."
Attorney Robert Baskett represents Officer Larsen, and said Deal was coerced into making the statements. He said the allegations have been investigated by Dallas Police and federal agents, and that his client has been cleared twice.
"Since I don't know what she's talking about, and nobody else does either, we can't test her knowledge or her credibility," Baskett said.
Additionally, the Dallas Police Department Public Integrity Division has interviewed Deal.
"She has, in fact, retracted a significant amount of it," Baskett said.
Mary Deal is currently in the county jail serving time for drug possession. Through an attorney, she said Thursday she stands by her statement and is willing to take a polygraph. |
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