A federal judge has dismissed charges against an alleged drug dealer, citing fabricated statements made in court by a Boston patrol officer and slow, sloppy work by federal prosecutors.
Earl Dessesaure, who was arrested and charged with drug dealing in February 2003, should be released from jail, and no further charges can be pursued in the case, according to a ruling handed down Friday.
In her harshly worded decision, US District Judge Nancy Gertner upbraided Boston police for conducting a warrantless search of Dessesaure's apartment, which prohibited most of the evidence from being used in court.
In addition, court records show that Boston police Officer John Broderick Jr. lied in court, discarded notes that could have contradicted his testimony, and relied on information from unreliable informants.
"This is a deeply flawed prosecution - from the Boston police officer who lied in court, to the prosecutor who justified a blatantly illegal search," Gertner wrote. "To allow this prosecution to continue would not advance the administration of justice; it would undermine it."
Police investigators conducted a review in 2005 of Broderick's actions and determined that challenges to his credibility were unfounded.
Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis defended the officer yesterday. "We in the Boston Police Department back Officer Broderick and the work that was done on this case," he said in a phone interview.
"We will continue as a Police Department to aggressively pursue people dealing heroin in the city," he added. "We certainly respect the court, and the court's decision, and we'll move forward."
Attempts yesterday to reach the federal prosecutor in the case, US Attorney Robert E. Richardson, were unsuccessful, and a spokeswoman for the department declined to comment.
Dessesaure's lawyer, Steven L. Winniman, said yesterday, that "this was a blatantly illegal search. . . .
"When the people that are charged with upholding the law commit perjury, it seems to me the whole justice system falls apart."
In February 2003, Quincy and Boston police began monitoring Dessesaure's apartment in Quincy and trips he made in his Cadillac Escalade, according to court records. They found white powder in garbage bags that he threw in a dumpster near apartment that they did not test but believed to be heroin, the records said.
The officers suspected he was dealing drugs, and on Feb. 24, they followed him and witnessed what they believed to be a drug deal. After arresting Dessesaure, the records said officers discovered six plastic bags of heroin in his rectum.
The officers then used Dessesaure's keys to enter his apartment, but without a search warrant. They found more powder believed to be heroin, a gun, and drug distribution paraphernalia, court records said. Only after discovering the evidence did Broderick apply for, and receive, a warrant to search the home.
"The rationale was, in a word, absurd," Gertner wrote. "The officers illegally searched the house and then called back to the district attorney's office with the evidence they found in order that it may be included in the warrant application."
Gertner also said that Broderick "contrived" a story that Dessesaure yelled as he was being arrested to a gathering crowd, "call my peeps," which Broderick said meant he was signaling someone to destroy evidence in his apartment. But Broderick was not at the scene, and his account was not confirmed by an officer who was at the scene, according to court records.
Dessesaure challenged the use of evidence from his apartment, and Gertner ruled in April 2004 there was enough evidence to search him and his car, but not his home. Federal prosecutors successfully challenged that decision to the US Court of Appeals, which ruled that the apartment evidence could be used. But with no action after that, Gertner determined that there had been a violation of the Speedy Trial Act, which sets a time limit a defendant can be held without trial.
She could have dismissed the case through a process that allowed prosecutors to refile, but instead she filed an unusual decision to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means that no further charges can be filed related to the case.
Dessesaure, who had been convicted in Suffolk County Superior Court for a 1986 armed robbery and assault, has been held in the current case without bail for more than four years. He will probably remain in jail awaiting appeals from federal prosecutors.
This is the second time that he has been freed after improper investigations by Boston police. In April 1998, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Patrick J. King threw out evidence against Dessesaure after concluding that Boston Detective Michael Feeney had concocted a story about an informant. The judge barred prosecutors from introducing as evidence 19 bags of crack cocaine seized from Dessesaure's car. The case never moved forward in Superior Court.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
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