Within hours after two Lauderhill brothers died in a Nov. 23 wrong-way crash, the second-in-command of Miami's FBI office learned that agent David Farrall had been drinking with another agent before his Honda collided with the brothers' Kia on Interstate 95.

Paul Mallett, associate special agent in charge, didn't pass that information on to Florida Highway Patrol investigators looking into the crash until a month later, even though he knew that on the night of the crash troopers believed Farrall had not been drinking.

``We walked down the hall [at the hospital]. Agent [John] Raleigh was extremely emotional. He said that he and Agent Farrall had been at the Quarterdeck [bar] watching Monday Night Football, and they had drunk a couple of beers,'' Mallett told prosecutor Michael Horowitz, during a Dec. 27 deposition.

Mallett's sworn testimony was included in 500 pages of evidence in the case released Friday by the Broward state attorney's office. Other documents include testimony from Raleigh, paramedics who attended to Farrall at the accident scene and the FHP's final traffic homicide investigation report.

Troopers have accused the FBI of impeding their investigation into the crash.

Lt. Pembrook Burrows, an FHP spokesman, said Friday that investigators on the accident scene told him no one from the FBI informed them Farrall had been drinking.

``The FBI never told us he had been at a bar watching football. They never said anything like that until the deposition,'' Burrows said.

Terry Nelson, spokesman for the FBI Miami bureau, said Mallett had no comment about why he didn't convey the information to troopers in the days immediately following the crash when it became clear that troopers suspected Farrall was the wrong-way driver.

``That is a question to be asked by the Broward County state's attorney,'' Nelson said. ``We have no additional information or comment.''

Assistant state attorney Horowitz did not ask Mallett that question during the deposition. Horowitz was unavailable for comment Friday. Jeff Marcus, head of the felony unit, said he couldn't comment on a pending investigation.

Nine hours after the crash, the FHP said in information released to the media that Farrall had not been drinking and that he had been driving in the right direction on I-95. Troopers blamed the brothers, Maurice Williams, 23, and Craig Chambers, 19, for the crash that killed them.

Some FHP investigators had doubts before releasing the information. But they did not voice their doubts, FHP supervisors have said.

The FHP took a month to publicly clear the brothers' names.

It wasn't until six days after the crash that the FHP first learned that Farrall might have been at a bar. That information came not from the FBI but from lawyers for the victims' family, who passed along a tip that the agent had been out watching football before the crash.

The documents released Friday make it clear that on the night of the crash Farrall sometimes received the benefit of the doubt because of his badge.

BENEFIT OF DOUBT

Paramedic William Fay, lead medic on the rescue team that night, said even though he smelled alcohol on Farrall's breath, he had a hard time believing the agent could have caused the accident. Fay was the person who got closest to Farrall at the scene. He estimates he was 10 inches from his face as he examined him and said he smelled alcohol every time Farrall exhaled.

``It's in your mind you have a guy who is an FBI agent,'' Fay said. ``You try to give him the benefit of the doubt, you know. You are thinking this guy is on a case or something.''

Farrall's words to the paramedics and others after the crash have been deleted from the documents released Friday because of laws that prohibit compelling defendants in criminal cases to give testimony or make statements incriminating themselves.

But from Fay's end of his conversation with Farrall it is clear the agent repeatedly said he was driving the right way.

``We took his word for it,'' Fay said.

FHP troopers quickly concluded that Farrall had not been drinking, even though no trooper on the scene got closer than standing outside the open driver's-side door of his Honda Accord.

CRASH-SCENE VISIT

Mallett came upon the accident scene shortly after 3:15 a.m. as he drove north on I-95 on his way to the hospital. He stopped and talked to troopers briefly before heading to North Broward Medical Center.

``I asked [the trooper] . . . if there was anything that I needed to know about the accident. He questioned what I meant. And I asked him if there was an indication - any indication of alcohol consumpxion by our agent. He said there was none.''

When Mallett ran into Raleigh at the hospital, Raleigh told him about the beer.

``He was distraught, asked me if we could step aside and talk for a minute,'' Mallett said in his deposition.

He continued: ``Well, after that conversation, I was concerned about how distraught John was. . . . I contacted the FBI switchboard and told them to get the priest en route to the hospital and the Employee Assistant Program counselor to the hospital.

``Noticing how distraught agent Raleigh was, I asked Father Quinn to talk with him, which he did. And then I asked [the counselor] to speak with him a little bit as well, just to make sure that he had somebody to talk to, and if he needed to get something out, that somebody was there to talk with him.''

OTHER REVELATIONS

Other new information in the documents released Friday:

* Farrall's blood alcohol-level in the hour after the crash was .14 not .17 as the FHP previously stated. The .17 reading came from blood drawn at the hospital for medical purposes. Medical tests use a portion of blood known as ``serum blood,'' which skews the results upward. Those have to be converted to match results that would come from using ``whole blood,'' the standard used in legal DUI tests.

* Raleigh said Farrall seemed fine when he left the bar. The two chatted in the parking lot before getting into their cars. ``If I had suspected at all that he was intoxicated, I would not have let him drive,'' Raleigh said.

* In the days immediately following the Nov. 23 crash, the FHP received information from six witnesses who said they saw a car going the wrong on I-95 just before the crash. That's the only thing they agree on. Three people said they saw a light-colored car - one of them said it was either a Honda Accord or Civic. Two people said they saw a dark car. One person didn't know what color the car was. The brothers' Kia was beige, the agent's Honda Accord was dark green.

* The FHP is still searching for a civilian who stopped to offer medical assistance at the accident scene. The man got into the car with Farrall and helped immobilize his neck. Investigators want to interview him about Farrall's state at the time.

Herald staff writers Brad Bennett and Larry Lebowitz contributed to this report.

HOW DETAILS EMERGED

A number of questions have been raised about the investigation into the wrong-way crash on Interstate 95 that left two brothers dead and FBI agent David Farrall injured. Two of the key questions:

* Why did the Florida Highway Patrol indicate in its accident report that Farrall was not drinking before the crash when it had not done a blood alcohol test?

* How and when did the FHP subsequently learn he had been drinking?

Depositions and other reports released Friday shed light on these matters:

William Fay, the chief paramedic firefighter at the scene of the Nov. 23 crash, said he smelled alcohol on Farrall's breath when he leaned into Farrall's car to assess his injuries. From Fay's deposition:

Q: You definitely smelled alcohol on him?

A: There was no question about it.

Q: How close did you get to him inside the car?

A: I was probably within 8 to 10 inches of his face.

This observation was not conveyed to troopers in the hours after the crash. On the morning of the crash, Paul Mallett Jr., associate special agent in charge, Miami division of the FBI, encountered a Florida Highway Patrol trooper at the accident scene. From Mallett's deposition:

``I asked [the trooper] if there was anything that I needed to know about the accident. He questioned what I meant. And I asked him if there was an indication - any indication of alcohol consumpxion by our agent. He said there was none.''

Three hours later at the hospital where Farrall was being treated, Mallett learned from FBI agent John Raleigh that Raleigh and Farrall had been at a bar drinking before the crash: From Mallett's deposition:

``I left the treatment area, went back out to the recepxion room, was confronted by Agent Raleigh. He was distraught, asked me if we could step outside and talk for a minute. I, of course, said that I would. We walked down the hall. Agent Raleigh was extremely emotional. He said that he and Agent Farrall had been at the Quarterdeck watching Monday Night Football, and that they had drunk a couple of beers.''

Mallett did not convey that information to the troopers investigating the crash. Nearly a week after the crash, troopers got the first hint that Farrall might have been drinking. It came not from the FBI but from the lawyers for the two brothers killed. From the traffic homicide report of Cpl. Rodney Hylton:

``At 6:55 p.m. (Nov. 29) I spoke with Mr. Jeffrey Ivashuk, PA, from the law office of Cubit and Cubit, who is representing the Williams/Chambers family. He heard from unnamed sources that D-1 (FBI agent Farrall) was either coming from the Miami FBI field office or had been out watching Monday Night Football. He suggested I check for credit card purchases made by a D-1 on the night of this crash.''