Schweizer's attorney, Allan J. Sagot, acknowledged that police superiors had found not one - but two - inflammatory stickers affixed to the inside of his client's locker:

One sticker said, "White Power." The other depicted a cartoon of a man, half as an officer in uniform and half as a Klansman, with the words "Blue By Day - White By Night."

But the stickers didn't belong to Schweizer, Sagot said.

Sagot said another officer within the Narcotics Strike Force slapped the stickers on Schweizer's locker on separate occasions. In both instances, Schweizer ripped the sticker off his locker and quickly stuck it on the inside without thinking, Sagot said.

"We know that the stickers were placed on the outside of his locker by a person unknown to us," Sagot said. "I believe it was a practical joke by one of his fellow officers."

When asked why Schweizer had not thrown the stickers in the trash, Sagot said, "It's a wonderful 20-20-hindsight question . . . He just said he wanted to get [the stickers] out of sight, so he threw them inside his locker. He was in a hurry, and he never really spent much time thinking about it."

The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the origin of the stickers and exploring whether the case is limited to Schweizer or somehow broader.

Police sources familiar with the probe said that investigators had dusted Schweizer's locker for fingerprints and that only his prints turned up. Sagot declined to discuss the investigation further, saying it was ongoing.

William Colarulo, chief inspector in the Internal Affairs Bureau, said the investigation was nearly finished.

"I only see a few interviews that need to be done," Colarulo said yesterday. "I think it should wrap up relatively soon."

Yesterday, Barry Morrison, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote a letter to Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey expressing concern.

"You can understand why we would be troubled to learn of such a cartoon seemingly showing sympathy for the Ku Klux Klan, appearing in the locker of a police officer," Morrison wrote. "We are writing not only to voice our concern, but to ask for clarification."

In an interview, Morrison cautioned against jumping to conclusions. He said the "Blue By Day - White By Night" phrase and the imagery of a police officer juxtaposed with a Klansman is typically associated with extremist groups that are anti-police. For example, an anarchist punk band called MDC, sometimes calling itself "Millions of Dead Cops," used a version of the image on an album in the 1980s.

"Typically, people who use this imagery are not admiring the police but denigrating the police and saying, in their view, that the police and the Klan are cut from the same evil cloth," Morrison said.

Yesterday, Rochelle Bilal, president of the Guardian Civic League, which represents 3,000 African-American officers, said: "We are appalled by that type of material on city property and on or in somebody's locker. However it got there, it still was on the property. As for a practical joke, we African-Americans are not laughing."

The internal case against

Schweizer began earlier this month, after an African-American officer in his unit spotted the stickers inside his locker and complained to superiors. Schweizer was removed from the elite narcotics surveillance unit and put on desk duty at police headquarters. He faces discipline ranging from a reprimand to dismissal, if administrative charges are brought against him.

Schweizer is not likely to face criminal charges because possession of such stickers is not a crime, legal experts said.

Meanwhile, defense lawyers across the city began to strategize on behalf of convicted and suspected drug dealers arrested by Schweizer.

Schweizer, 33, who joined the force 10 years ago, orchestrated dozens of undercover drug busts in predominantly African-American neighborhoods while serving on the strike force. Schweizer often testified in court as a witness for prosecutors.

"It seems like Christmas Eve for defense attorneys like me," Michael Coard said.

The allegations against Schweizer, if true, "open up an ugly and smelly can of racist worms because this thing can go much, much deeper," Coard said.

Coard, a Philadelphia-based defense lawyer, said he expects dozens, if not hundreds, of criminal defendants to file appeals or seek post-conviction relief. Coard said defense lawyers could request a new trial based on "newly discovered evidence in terms of a failed opportunity to cross-examine a key witness as to his bias or motive to lie on black defendants."

If a judge accepts that argument, the floodgates could open and hundreds of defendants could get their cases reheard, Coard said.

Troy Wilson, chairman of the criminal-justice section of the Philadelphia Bar Association, said the investigation of Schweizer presents not only an opportunity for defendants sitting in jail, but a problem for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, which must decide how to proceed with pending cases in which Schweizer was the arresting officer.

"Let's say I'm a prosecutor: Do I want to take the risk of losing a case by putting someone like that on the witness stand?" Wilson said. "I doubt it."

Wilson said that if the D.A.'s office is "crazy enough to want to use [Schweizer] as a witness in active cases . . . one of the first things that I'm going to do is cross-examine him. I could hold up a copy of the front page of the Daily News and say, 'Isn't it true that this came from your locker and who did you lock up in my case? An African-American male.' "

Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for D.A. Lynne Abraham, declined to comment on the matter yesterday.