The Chief, the Scotsman, the Swindler, and the Killer

Milano says he is also considering filing criminal charges against Horvath, or pursuing civil action for violation of his civil rights.

"You have to understand this is very distasteful to me," Milano says. "I'm sick and tired of people calling me a thief, a liar, a con man, a cheat, a child molester. If I'm any of those things, fucking arrest me. Arrest me. If I'm any of those things, why haven't I fled the country and sought sanctuary in New Zealand, where they don't have extradition treaties with the United States?"

In addition to his personal hell, Milano says, Horvath's continued quest to jail him may make it impossible for police to prosecute Coleman's real killer.

Former DeSoto police Lieutenant Pothen says that by opening up investigative files to outsiders, dragging files off to Europe and forming his alliance with the English defense lawyers, Horvath may have fatally contaminated evidence gathered in the case.

Not only has Horvath muddied the waters of any future prosecution, they say, but some evidence may even be missing.

After Horvath's return from England, De-Soto police learned that the man they consider their true suspect--the alleged hit man who had been meeting with Coleman before his death--had pawned a gun at a Dallas pawn shop. It was a .45. But according to sources familiar with the situation, investigators were unable to obtain a ballistics test to see if the new weapon matched the bullets that killed Coleman.

Those bullets, it seems, have been lost. Pothen says he last saw them in the chief's office. Horvath will not confirm whether the bullets have been lost, but says that he personally did not misplace or destroy them.

Horvath will not discuss what might have happened with the bullets, saying it could jeopardize his department's efforts to charge Coleman's killer. And there is no doubt in the chief's mind who that will turn out to be.

Romeo Milano, the police chief says, "doesn't know how close he is to being in jail.