Thursday, July 4, 1996

First week of trial: Distancing Irvin from drugs

By STEFANI G. KOPENEC
Associated Press
(July 4, 1996)

DALLAS (AP) - Defense attorneys have spent the first week of Michael Irvin's felony drug trial trying to distance the Dallas Cowboys receiver from cocaine and marijuana found in a motel room, and countering police officers' account of a raid.

Attorney Kevin Clancy also suggested Wednesday that a vial with cocaine residue found in Irvin's bag in the room where he was found with two topless dancers could have been put there by former Cowboys teammate Alfredo Roberts.

The former tight end was not arrested in the March 4 raid. Irvin and dancers Angela Beck and Jasmine Nabwangu were arrested and indicted on drug charges.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday morning, with the state calling its second witness.

Clancy, in intense daylong cross-examination Wednesday, tried to poke holes in testimony of Irving police officer Matthew Drumm. The attorney suggested Drumm worked with prosecutors to fine-tune his story and possibly contaminated drug evidence offered against Irvin.

State District Judge Manny Alvarez denied a defense motion for a mistrial after assistant district attorney Shannon Ross accused Irvin's lawyers of misleading the jury in their questioning of Drumm.

Earlier testimony showed Irving officers met with prosecutors five times on details of the drug raid.
Drumm, under later questioning by Ross, said that neither prosecutors nor others in the Irving Police Department told him what to say. Prosecutors only encouraged him to "tell the truth," Drumm said.

Clancy asked Drumm about the meetings and suggested "y'all got your stories straight."
"That almost sounds like we made something up. No," said Drumm, the lead officer called to the Residence Inn on what he termed a routine disturbance possibly involving prostitution.

Drumm was grilled by Clancy about the location of the bag containing the vial with cocaine residue.
When Drumm said he wasn't certain despite testimony from a pretrial hearing in which he said he believed it was in a bedroom area, Clancy questioned Drumm's memory.

"Now, today, because it doesn't fit with their (prosecutors') theory ... " Clancy said, this thought trailing off.

He later asked if someone else may have placed the vial in the bag.

"Could Alfredo Roberts have put it in the bag?" Clancy asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see him," Drumm said.

Clancy also interrogated Drumm about his handling of drug evidence in the case, suggesting that commingling items such as plates that at one time contained cocaine and marijuana may have contaminated them.

"I don't believe I contaminated anything, no," Drumm said.

He also testified about Beck's reaction when officers pulled cocaine from her gym bag. In opening statements, prosecutors said Beck told a friend that she "almost had a heart attack" when the drugs were found, but that Irvin "assured her it would be OK and he wouldn't forget what she was doing."

Two cocaine packages were found in a gym bag belonging to Beck, the only one of the four arrested March 4 after the bust. A Dallas County grand jury later indicted Irvin and Jasmine Nabwangu. Roberts was not indicted.

According to Drumm, Beck didn't appear surprised.

"Did she have a heart attack?" Clancy asked.

"No," Drumm responded.

"Did she say anything in particular?" asked Clancy.

"Not that I remember. No," Drumm said.

The officer also testified that while Irvin appeared "under the influence of something" and that Crown Royal whiskey and wine were in the room, he wouldn't say Irvin was "legally intoxicated."

At the request of defense attorneys, he also examined Irvin's eyes Wednesday and said they were red.

Drumm told Ross that Irvin's eyes appeared more red in March.

Irvin, if convicted, could face between probation and 20 years in prison. The NFL likely will wait for the verdict before deciding whether Irvin violated the league's substance abuse policy.

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