DALLAS, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A special prosecutor was named Tuesday to investigate a Dallas police "fake drug" scandal in which dozens of innocent people were arrested and charged.
Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill named Dan Hagood, a former prosecutor now in private practice, to head the independent investigation. Hill called Hagood "one of the most exemplary trial lawyers in the state."
Hill said he named an outside counsel because his office handled the fake drug cases without knowing the drugs were actually billiard chalk. His office had accepted the results of police field tests, but now all drugs confiscated by police officers are check by another laboratory when they reach his office.
Hagood's appointment comes a week after a Dallas police narcotics detective was acquitted on federal civil rights charges in the case. Hill requested the FBI investigation and deferred any action by his office until that review was concluded.
The city of Dallas this week launched an internal investigation of police procedures two years after the arrests of innocent Mexican immigrants. Three informants have pleaded guilty to charges of planting the fake drugs on the victims.
