FBI REPORT ON JUNE MELEE IN CIRCULATION

The FBI's report about a conflict with police last June on Good Hope Street has been read by area attorneys, their clients and friends but no one in Cape Girardeau city government other than a police detective.

"There are probably copies of it spread all along Good Hope," said Morley Swingle, Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney, who gave copies of the report to lawyers representing defendants in keeping with disclosure practices.

The report was meant to be kept confidential among law enforcement agencies, said FBI agent Mike McComas.

The report is the result of an investigation by the FBI into possible legal and civil rights violations from the near riot in the 400 block of Good Hope Street on June 11. It resulted in nine arrests and injuries to six police officers.

Allegations of racial prejudice in the incident, in which white policemen arrested nine blacks after physical altercations and rock throwing, had been leveled against police in public meetings and private conversations.

Mayor Al Spradling III said he first heard about the report's completion in a conversation between lawyers last week.

"It's not something I'm going to be critical about," Spradling said. "But if it's out there I would have liked an opportunity to see it."

Although the police department has a copy of the FBI report locked away, Hetzel said he has not read it. He said he is awaiting a letter of recommendations and possible findings from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The only person in the police department who has read the report is Detective Mark Majoros, Hetzel said. Majoros has been in charge of the department's investigations into the incident. He has prepared material for Swingle to use in prosecution along with leading a short internal investigation into police conduct during the melee. The police internal investigation ended when the FBI took over, Hetzel said.

"We still have a responsibility to prepare a case for prosecution," Hetzel said. "There wouldn't be anything wrong with us having a copy."

Majoros read the FBI report in order to see if his investigation had missed anyone, Hetzel said. This led Majoros to conduct interviews with two people whom FBI agents had spoken with but police hadn't, Hetzel said.

Spradling said he had overheard a conversation between Stephen Wilson and Al Lowes, who have represented two of the eight men charged with crimes in the conflict. Wilson had offered a copy of the report to Lowes, whose client, Tracy Selvy, had already entered a plea.

Wilson had received a copy of the report from Swingle. The prosecutor got his copy two weeks ago as the result of a request by Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel to the FBI.

Hetzel said his request was made to assist Swingle with his deposition of witnesses in the trials of Greg and Kenneth Campbell. The Campbell brothers have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers and resisting arrest in connection with the incident.

After Swingle got a copy, he said he made it available to three attorneys representing clients charged in the chaos whose cases were still pending in court.

Missouri requires prosecutors to provide investigative information from law enforcement agencies to defense attorneys in pending cases, Swingle said. It might be a better system if attorneys were allowed to read investigative reports but not take them home, the prosecutor said.

Swingle sees a significant problem developing when witnesses can read the report and then attempt to conform their court testimonies to it.

A federal court order could be issued limiting disclosure of an investigative report, said Larry Ferrell, the assistant U.S. attorney who reviewed the report. The strictest protective orders can restrict attorneys from making copies of a report, he said.

But this would only apply to federal courts. The Campbells' trials will be held in state courts, where almost no information is confidential, Swingle said.

The identity of a confidential source can be kept secret as long as that person doesn't testify in court, Swingle said.

Hetzel said it was unfortunate but not unusual that attorneys have allowed the FBI report to be read by those who shouldn't.

"We don't have any control over the attorneys," he said.