FEDS SAY COP LED GANG

Acclaimed officer arrested on job

An Atlanta police "Officer of the Year" was arrested Wednesday on federal
racketeering charges as an alleged leader of a notorious drug gang.

Officer David Alan Freeman, 38, is among 16 people indicted since March as
members of the Diablos gang, which authorities describe as "very violent."

Freeman was arrested after a morning "roll call" to start his 7 a.m.-to-3
p.m. shift. The officer was assigned to the Zone 1 district in the northwest
part of the city.

He is charged with warning the Diablos of police investigations,
confiscating drugs from arrested suspects in rival gangs and attempting to
recruit gang members.

Freeman, clad in dark pants and a white T-shirt, pleaded innocent Wednesday
afternoon before U.S. Magistrate E. Clayton Scofield III, who ordered him
jailed pending a bond hearing scheduled Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Buchanan said she will oppose bond for the
officer, arguing he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Freeman, who has been on the city police force for 12 years, was suspended
with pay pending a hearing before police Chief Richard Pennington within a
week, said Sgt. John Quigley, a police spokesman.

The federal indictment charges Freeman was a key lieutenant in the Diablos
gang, where he went by the name "Day Day." He resorted to violence, threats
and intimidation to supply the gang with drugs and money, according to
William J. Duffey, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

Freeman worked closely with alleged gang leader Billy Durante Ladson, 26,
alias "Billy Diablo," to control drug traffic in northwest Atlanta, where
Freeman grew up in a housing project, authorities said.

Two weeks ago, Freeman was named his zone's "Officer of the Year."

At a news conference with federal authorities, Pennington was asked how the
officer could be involved in gang activity. The chief replied that
corruption investigations are "always difficult because people are often
afraid to come forward about corrupt police officers."

Pennington, hired to head Atlanta's Police Department a year ago, recalled
that a former officer in New Orleans, where he had been chief, is now on
death row for murder. That officer had been known as "Robo Cop" for his high
number of arrests.

Police officers who wind up being convicted of crimes sometimes are "among
the most aggressive and tenacious, the ones who make a lot of arrests,"
Pennington said.

"I won't tolerate corruption," the chief said. "I'm not saying it's endemic
to the system. I'm saying we will root it out when it exists."

Duffey, the U.S. attorney, said Freeman's alleged criminal activities "cut
at the very heart of the law enforcement community."

Since 1997, according to the indictment filed under the federal Racketeering
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Diablos gang acted ruthlessly
to protect their "power, territory, and profits."

Freeman is specifically charged with:

Alerting the gang to law enforcement investigations and search warrants.

Suggesting the robbery of people he knew to be drug dealers.

Transferring cocaine and other narcotics from drug suspects to the Diablos.

Ricardo S. Mosby, Freeman's attorney, said the officer is a victim of
mistaken "guilt by association."

"The Diablos, to my knowledge, are a musical group, and he was a security
guard for this group. I don't know about any gang," Mosby said. Freeman grew
up in Bowen Homes, where he knew and formed a friendship with many in the
"group," Mosby said.

"Two weeks ago, he was awarded Officer of the Year in Zone 1. It will be
proven that he is an exemplary officer, and I think the city's going to owe
him an apology," the attorney said.

This is not Freeman's first brush with a criminal accusation. In 1997, he
was charged with aggravated assault after allegedly beating and
pistol-whipping the campaign manager for Atlanta City Council member Jared
Samples. The campaign manager, Edward Traylor Jr., said Freeman, who was
Samples' campaign treasurer, complained about Traylor's work.

Freeman was off duty and out of uniform during the alleged attack and was
cleared when a Fulton County grand jury declined to indict him.