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Show By Inuendo Affidavit Implicates Police Affidavits sworn to by state narcotics agents investigating the alleged "Park City cocaine conspiracy" contain "inuendos and false allegations" which may be damaging to the Park City Police Department, according to attorney John O'Connell, who represents one of the defendants in the case. During pretrail motions made last Thrusday before Judge Aldon Anderson in Salt Lake's federal courtroom, O'Connel said the agents made the allegations before a third district court judge to secure permission to tap the phone lines of some of the suspects in the conspiracy. In order to secure the wiretap ruling, which O'Connell said is unusual in Utah, the agents indicated in the affidavits that conventional investigation methods were useless in Park City because the city was "under a siege of terror and totally corrupt", according to O'Connell's statements in court. The attorney said the affidavits accuse by "inuendo and false" allegations" the Park City Police Department of "conspiring with the drug dealers", associating with orgnized crime", and of "covering up the murder of a young woman killed to warn others not to snitch.". The affidavits themselves are presently sealed and on file : in Coalville with the Summit County Clerk. They will become public once they along with other information on the case is filed in federal court prior to the trial of the conspirators scheduled to begin June 2, Summit County Attorney Bob Adkins said. When contacted by the Record, 0 Connell described the affidavit as highly "libelous", and "reckless". He said the allegations were "false and unsupported by evidence". O'Connell adds that the affidavit makes inuendo thaf Park City police officers were protecting "dope dealers" and cites , the instance several years ago when officers accidently broke up an undercover "stakeout" after responding to a complaint of "suspicious prowlers.". Park City Police Chief Mike Crowley said he only was shown the affidavits last week by O'Connell and was total surprised about its existence. Crowley said He showed the affidavits to City Manager Arlene Lobel who retained attorney, Max Wheeler, to represent the police force and the city if needs be. Loble said the affidavits were "strange and vague". She said the agents do not accuse the PCPD of anything in the affidavits but only niake "references and inuendos" which indicate the necessity of wiretaps because they (the agents) "couldn't work with the police department." Loble could only remember a few specifics, but cited an alleged conversation with an informant who indicated, in so many words, "you can smoke pot in Park City but don't drive drunk". She said they typified the information in the affidavit as "heresay conversation with no supporting evidence." Federal prosecuting attorney Sam Alba declined to comment on the nature of the affidavits, saying only they are bing currently reviewed by Judge Anderson. According to Alba, the judge can either "edit" the affidavits, removing statements of questionable truth, or call a special hearing to determine the validity of the affidavits as a whole. If the affidavits are found to be totally false, misleading and unsupported by fact then they and the wiretap information they were using to ultimately secure will be ruled inaddmissable as evidence. He admitted if it is proved the Park City Police Department was unjustly slandered in the affidavits, then a libel suit could possible ensue. Alba concluded he plans to answer O'Connell's charges regarding the tenacity of the affidavits in Judge Andersons's court this week. |
