own Narcotics Department, two lawyers charged yesterday.

And barristers Delroy Duncan and Juan Woolfe, acting for whistleblower Det.

Con. Lendrea Davis, called for an independent body to look into the controversy.

They also claimed that Det. Con. Davis -- who alleged that she was urged by Det. Con. Rudolph Richardson to change her witness statement in the Ellsworth Wilson drugs case -- was treated as a suspect during a previous internal investigation.

Mr. Wilson was acquitted of possessing and handling more than $50,000 worth of heroin on Thursday.

Det. Con. Richardson, the lead investigator in the case, is alleged to have put pressure on Det. Con. Davis to change her statement so that all the detectives' statements were consistent.

But she refused and taped one of her conversations with him which demonstrated that he had lied to a senior investigator when he initially denied that he ever approached her.

Det. Con. Davis resigned from the Police on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Deputy Police Commissioner Jean Jacques Lemay -- who headed the first internal investigation which found there was insufficient evidence to support Det. Con. Davis' allegations -- said there would be another internal Police probe into Det. Con. Richardson's conduct.

But in a statement, Messrs Duncan and Woolfe said: "We are singularly unimpressed with the fact that Deputy Commissioner Jean Jacques Lemay is now saying that the Bermuda Police Force is going to conduct an internal investigation into the conduct of the officers involved in the Ellsworth Wilson case.

"Prior to the commencement of the case, Mrs. Davis, through (our) offices, provided the Police with a statement setting out full details of her allegations and soon thereafter provided the tapes which were corroborative of her allegations.

"However, during the course of their investigations the Police searched Ms Davis' premises and property thereby giving the clear impression that she was being treated as a suspect.'' Moreover, Det. Con. Davis' lawyers said that Police have already done one internal investigation and it was not reasonable to expect them to do justice to another one.

"Nothing new was revealed in the trial that the Police did not already know,'' the statement continued. "We are therefore urging the Bermuda Government to conduct an independent investigation into the conduct of all levels of the Narcotics department and all the cases in which these officers have been involved.

"By independent we mean by a neutral body which in no way whatsoever is associated with the Bermuda Police Force,'' they said. "This is all the more important since Deputy Commissioner Lemay has already prejudged the issue by saying that the Police corruption involves only one officer in one case, when the tape recorded conversation of the officers reveal that all the officers in the case other than Ms Davis changed their statements.'' On Wednesday, Mr. Wilson's lawyer, Tim Marshall, called for a Royal Commission on the Police Service, especially those areas affecting contemporaneous record taking and exhibits.

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