Saturday, August 16, 1997

By THAO HUA, L.A. Times Staff Writer

SANTA ANA--An undercover operation in which Santa Ana police manufactured and sold rock cocaine in order to snare prospective drug buyers was upheld Friday by an appellate court panel.

     The decision, hailed by prosecutors and police but criticized by public defenders, overturned an earlier ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who called the program "outrageous" and essentially forced police to end it two years ago.

     But the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the operation is within the limits of a California law, Associate Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. wrote.

     The issue dates to a 1995 court hearing for Robert Ramos, one of more than 400 people arrested during sting operations using the manufactured drug. A jury convicted Ramos, a self-employed carpenter, of buying $15 worth of the drug. But Carter refused to grant police a court order enabling them to continue turning powdered cocaine into its rock form and lambasted the practice.

    Carter's opposition and other roadblocks eventually led police to shelve the program.

    In appealing his case, Ramos argued that the sting constituted "outrageous police misconduct."

     The justices disagreed. They said police investigators sometimes must break the law--for example, by posing as addicts or sellers--in order to uphold it.