Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990 TAG: 9007210233
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 12 jurors took less than an hour to return a guilty verdict.
Roanoke vice detectives arrested Koy Clifton Board, 34, in February after receiving a tip from an anonymous caller that four people aboard a LaGuardia-to-Roanoke flight were carrying drugs.
As passengers debarked, authorities stopped those who fit the caller's descriptions, including Board and two women. One of the women was found with drugs strapped to her body and the other had a suitcase filled with drugs.
Det. K.L. Wood testified that he approached Board as he was getting into an airport limousine. After consenting to being searched, Wood found in Board's pockets four plastic bags, each of which contained five smaller bags. Each of the five bags contained 10 smaller bags. Each of those contained one rock of crack.
Wood testified that Board told him, " `That's all mine, I brought it for my own personal use. Sometimes I give it to girls. You know how that is.' "
Board, an electrical inspector in New York, testified that he'd gotten the drugs from a man named "James" in place of money that the man owed him. An admitted drug user, Board said he stuffed the drugs in his pockets before he left New York for Roanoke, where he was coming to explore the job market and find a house. The drugs were for his own use, Board testified.
"You were coming here to locate a business, but it had nothing to do with electrical work," Fitzgerald said. "It was to sell crack to make money to establish yourself in a new business."
Board's attorney, Gary Bowman, contended that Board had been treated unfairly by being singled by authorities because he is black.
"It's not fair what happened to Board," Bowman said. "Some things in this country are more important than the war on drugs. Some things are more sacrosanct than getting a few rocks of cocaine off someone."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald objected to Bowman's comments, which he said suggested that the law enforcement officer's actions were made on a "racial or other inappropriate basis."
"To suggest that agents selected only black people is absurd given the context of the tip received," Fitzgerald said.
The original tipster, detectives testified, specified that the two women and two men arriving on the flight were black.
by CNB