Neither guilty nor innocent, Daniel O'Keefe has served a sentence all the same, a victim of politics, posturing and plain old confusion.

But today, he will be cleared of the charge that created a standoff between police and attorneys -- and kepx him locked up in the Broward County Jail without trial.

"I'm no angel, but I just want the system to work the way it's supposed to," said O'Keefe, 22. "I've been sitting here for seven months on this. Every time I turn around, there's a roadblock."

The Broward State Attorney's Office decided Wednesday to drop its charge that he resisted arrest with violence when Hollywood police took him into custody on Nov. 1, 1993. At a hearing today before Circuit Judge Mark Speiser, prosecutors will announce they don't have enough evidence to pursue the case.

"It's outrageous," said Assistant Public Defender Jeff Ivashuk. "This man has been in a jail cell for all this time, and now they say they're dropping the charge. Why couldn't they have done this six months ago?"

Instead of going after O'Keefe, prosecutors will pursue the cops who busted him. They will work on a new case -- presenting evidence to a grand jury that Hollywood police officers repeatedly hit O'Keefe in the face when he was handcuffed in the van that took him to the police station.

O'Keefe, a small-time auto burglar with no violent crimes on his record, filed a brutality complaint against the department shortly after his arrest. He said the officers chased him down a Hollywood street and then beat him once he was inside the back of the van. They had been sent to pick him up for a violation of his probation for a previous car burglary conviction. His violation: he moved without notifying his probation officer.

He has passed a lie detector test on the incident, and an eyewitness -- a juvenile who also was handcuffed in the back of the van -- has corroborated his accusation in a sworn statement given to Public Defender's Office.

But the accusation, intended to be his ticket out of jail, instead kepx him behind bars.

"Cases like this one chill any desire to go to the Police Department and make a complaint," Ivashuk said. "The only way to counteract that is for people to have the courage to stand up and speak out."

The Hollywood police officers, who had given statements to the Internal Affairs division of their department, are prohibited by department regulation from commenting on O'Keefe's case, said Police Chief Richard Witt.

So when O'Keefe's public defender began preparing the defense case, the officers involved refused to talk.

One officer took the Fifth Amendment -- the one that gives citizens the right to refuse to answer questions under oath because it might incriminate them.

Today, the judge was expected to rule. Instead, he'll hear that the charges have been dropped. Assistant State Attorney John Countryman refused to discuss the case Wednesday, only confirming that the charges would be dismissed.

Chief Witt acknowledged Wednesday that his department's policy of gagging officers from talking about the O'Keefe case has run contrary to justice being served.

"There is a conflict between our rules and regulations, and the questions being posed by the Public Defender's Office," Witt said Wednesday. "It looks as if in this case it creates an unusual impediment. . . . It has never come into play quite this way."

His department has been at odds with the Public Defender's Office on several recent occasions, however. In two cases -- one involving an accused serial rapist, the other a robbery suspect -- the department has been publicly criticized for its investigative techniques. Both times, the Public Defender's Office led the charge.

Witt dismisses any political motives for the delays in the O'Keefe case. "I know of no animosity," he said. The very idea is "ludicrous," he said.

But, "I find it absolutely believable that there are individuals in both departments that do not get along."

He said officers are prohibited from discussing the case to prevent collusion. However, all of the officers' statements already have been taken and the investigation closed, with an "inconclusive" result, he said.

The information was turned over to the State Attorney's Office to be used in its presentation to the grand jury, he said.

Witt hopes the judge will clarify how officers should handle similar situations in the future. "Whatever the judge says, by gosh, that's what we'll do," he said.

O'Keefe's father -- also named Daniel O'Keefe -- says promises from the Hollywood police are not to be trusted. "If he's done something wrong, he deserves to do time," the senior O'Keefe said. "But he hasn't gotten a fair shake from that department from Day 1. They frighten me."

The Dade County firefighter says he wishes he could sell the house he purchased in Hollywood a little more than a year ago. "I don't feel comfortable here anymore," he said.

For his son, any change in the department's policies comes a bit too late. He already has served more time in jail than he did on the previous auto burglary conviction. In that case, he served six months of a four-year sentence.

"I'm angry, sure I am," he said. "I have a girlfriend. I have a life. I want to get out and work. But instead, I've been in jail for seven months, seven real long months."