WHEN reputed Jamaican drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' coke pleaded guilty last month to reduced charges in a New York court, speculation was rife that he would call names.

Yesterday, Coke's legal team insisted that he had not, and did not intend to co-operate with US prosecutors.

 The speculation, according to Coke's legal team, is putting the "innocent" lives of the family members of the former Tivoli Gardens don at risk.

"He is not co-operating," Stephen H Rosen, Coke's Florida-based attorney, told the Observer in an interview.

A few hours later Rosen, through Priya Levers, the legal consultant to Coke's local legal team, would elaborate on the matter: "I can assure you that Mr Coke has no intention whatsoever of calling any names. Certainly those are my instructions and those of Mr Rosen," said Levers.

The attempt to set the record straight came on a day that was dominated by news that Coke had written to Judge Robert P Patterson Jr asking for leniency ahead of his December 8 sentencing.

In his seven-page, hand written letter that was released to the media on Tuesday, Coke asked Patterson to use his discretion to sentence him "below the guideline range".

The 42-year-old Coke, who had been on a list of the world's most dangerous drug traffickers, on August 31 pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and faces a maximum prison sentence of 23 years.

"Good day to you, Sir. I am humbly asking if you could be lenient on me...," Coke said in the letter to Patterson.

Coke listed 13 reasons the judge should be lenient, including the recent loss of his mother, who had bemoaned his incarceration. "I was told that while she was on her deathbed, she was crying and kept calling my name," Coke wrote.

He also asked for mercy for the sake of his son, aged eight, telling the judge: "I was told that he is constantly asking for his daddy. He cries all the time..."

Coke was last year extradited to the United States to face guns and drug-running charges but eventually pleaded guilty after Patterson refused to throw out damning wiretap evidence against him. Also contributing to Coke's decision was the fact that 12 convicted men from Tivoli Gardens were set to testify about him committing no fewer than six murders in the furtherance of his alleged drug and gun-running operations.

Coke was facing possible life in prison if convicted and his plea to the lesser charges quickly fuelled speculation that he had agreed to implicate others.

Yesterday, Levers said that Rosen, whom she said "has done a terrific job on Coke's behalf, was "disturbed" about the speculation.

"I don't know why people are saying that and I don't know on what basis people are saying that. Those of us who have worked closely with Mr Rosen... can't understand that malicious and damaging circulation," said Levers.

She added: "People have to understand that the man has lost his mother, his family is here, and by saying these sorts of things you are putting an innocent family at risk. People really have to do better than that."