The Broward State Attorney’s Office said its prosecutors will be in court before a judge on Friday to clear the criminal records of dozens of people who were arrested decades ago when law enforcement officers posed as drug dealers to sell them crack cocaine.
The 44 defendants were originally caught in “reverse stings” with crack cocaine that was actively manufactured by law enforcement authorities.
The special hearings, presided over by Broward Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel, are the first results of a massive review launched by Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor.
The initiative stems from a notorious local scandal, according to Pryor’s office. They said that in February 1989, Broward Sheriff’s Office employees discovered 2.2 pounds of powder cocaine in a Greyhound bus station locker. Instead of destroying it, BSO employees began to “cook up” crack cocaine to use as bait. For three years, BSO and the former Oakland Park Public Safety Department used the government-made drugs to arrest people attempting to buy them…