By Tim Wyatt, Dallas Morning News, September 10, 2005

 Both sides agree that a rogue cop and an undercover informant trumped up drug charges against Mexican immigrant Victor Alvarado DeLeon.

 But as testimony began Friday in a civil rights case that will close out another chapter in the 2001 fake-drug scandal, sharp differences remained in assigning blame.

 Mr. DeLeon's attorney, Nadine King-Mays, called witnesses to bolster her argument that the city of Dallas should pay damages to her 28-year-old client because the city's responsibility goes hand-in-hand with the shoddy supervision of officers in the street-level narcotics squad that included former Officer Mark Delapaz.

 The city has publicly admitted that supervision was lax during the scandal, and, in addition to making numerous internal policy changes, has already paid $8 million in settlements to at least 23 people falsely arrested.

But during opening statements in Mr. DeLeon's case, attorney Richard Sayles told the jury that city leaders weren't to blame for Mr. DeLeon's April 2001 arrest.

 "He should have never been arrested," Mr. Sayles said. But he argued that because city leaders had no knowledge that Officer Delapaz had abandoned city policy and departmental guidelines when Mr. DeLeon was arrested, the city was not at fault.

 One witness, a Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics officer who spent 15 months working with a special prosecutor investigating the fake-drug scandal, described Officer Delapaz – who has since been fired – as a "loose cannon" who regularly lied in court papers and in testimony to win drug cases.

 "He was basically out of control," Sgt. David Eldridge testified Friday. "And since his sergeant wasn't paying any attention to what was going on, it festered into a big problem for the city."

 Last month, a Dallas County grand jury indicted Mr. Delapaz and his former partner, Eddie Herrera, on aggravated perjury charges stemming from what prosecutors say were fabricated statements made under oath in drug cases from 2001.

 Mr. DeLeon is the last of dozens of innocent people who sued after they were falsely arrested by former narcotics Officer Delapaz. Only one other case actually went before a jury, and in May, Abel Santos was awarded $406,500 for being falsely arrested and jailed for nearly four months.

 Testimony in Mr. DeLeon's case resumes Monday morning in U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade's court.