Attorneys for Joseph Scott, 29, argued that Williams and Ramsey should be forced to testify about Williams' Dec. 3 letter to Ramsey, in which the D.A. said his office would no longer use the six cops as witnesses or accept charges or approve search warrants in drug cases in which they were involved.
Although Williams and Ramsey have not specified what the officers have done, media reports have quoted sources that alleged that the six had engaged in a pattern of misconduct that included stealing, lying and planting evidence.
Williams has since dropped charges against nearly 270 defendants who had open cases resulting from arrests by the officers. Ramsey has since transferred them out of narcotics. Among them are the two officers who arrested Scott on Dec. 6, 2011: John Spicer and Brian Reynolds.
On Nov. 21, Scott pleaded no contest to dealing crack cocaine and was sentenced by Judge Anhalt to nine to 23 months in jail.
Bradley Bridge, one of Scott's public defenders, noted that Scott's case was disposed of just 12 days before Williams' letter regarding the tainted officers.
Scott is entitled to a new trial because the D.A.'s office failed to notify him about the investigation of the arresting officers, Bridge said.
The investigation had been ongoing for weeks, if not months, before Williams letter, Bridge said, noting a Feb. 12 court filing in another case in which First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann said documents related to Williams' decision not to use the six officers were "created as part of and involve ongoing law-enforcement investigations."
The chief assistant of the D.A.'s appeal unit said the office would neither confirm or deny that the officers were being investigated.
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