THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512220399
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed indictments against two alleged members of a Peninsula drug gang, accusing prosecutors of abusing their power. The decision makes it nearly certain that about 20 other defendants will also have their charges dropped.
U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson dismissed drug conspiracy and money laundering charges against Anthony L. Olvis and Angela D. Palmer, claiming that federal prosecutors' refusal to turn over working papers made it impossible to tell whether Olvis, Palmer and other defendants in the case were unfairly prosecuted because they are black.
Jackson even hinted that further refusals by prosecutors could lead to jail. ``Courts also have the power to impose sanctions (jail/incarceration) on attorneys who fail to comply with discovery orders,'' he said in a written order. ``To date, the Court has refrained from exercising this power.''
Federal prosecutors involved in the case - including Helen F. Fahey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia - could not be reached Thursday for comment.
The dismissals do not free Olvis and Palmer. Jackson kept them in jail, pending an appeal by prosecutors to the 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals. Olvis' alleged role as ringleader prevented his release, but Jackson said he would consider arguments to release Palmer, who is charged with having a more peripheral role.
All the defendants are black and are alleged to be part of three separate drug gangs that sold crack cocaine in Williamsburg and James City and New Kent counties. The alleged leaders - Olvis of Williamsburg, Terry D. Jones of Toano and Marty L. Wright of Virginia Beach - were arrested in September with their co-defendants. Palmer was a minor member of Olvis' gang who laundered drug money by purchasing automobiles, indictments said.
The three gangs allegedly staked out separate territories and worked as friendly competitors, sometimes sending customers to other gangs when they ran out of drugs. But prosecutors also alleged that there was considerable violence associated with the gangs, including beatings, shootings and possibly murder.
Just before Olvis and Palmer went to trial on Nov. 6, their defense attorneys discovered hints in grand jury transcripts that five witnesses appearing before grand jurors were white and ``were more than peripherally involved,'' court records said. But they were granted immunity, unlike some black witnesses also charged.
Defense attorneys James Ellenson and Sterling Weaver charged prosecutors with ``selective prosecution,'' and Jackson asked for further evidence.
But prosecutors refused to hand it over. In a Nov. 22 letter, Fahey told Jackson: ``I believe that your order is not consistent with prevailing law.'' She added that turning over the entire grand jury transcripts would mean that ``prosecution witnesses will be harmed or worse.''
Court records showed that since 1992, of the 250 crack cases tried in Norfolk federal court, the race of defendants could be determined in 226. Of those, 210 were black. During the same period in the Newport News federal court, of the 62 crack cases tried, race could be determined in 59. Of these, 50 defendants were black.
After a Dec. 4 hearing, Jackson again ordered prosecutors to hand over evidence. Eight days later they refused, stating the alleged ringleaders were blacks operating in black neighborhoods and that cooperating witnesses were granted immunity without regard to race.
Jackson didn't buy their arguments. ``Courts have dismissed criminal prosecutions because of serious government abuse in the investigations leading to the indictments,'' he wrote. ``Here, the Court is faced with an alleged constitutional violation; selective prosecution presents potential prejudice of great magnitude. . . .''
Thursday's order excoriated prosecutors on several fronts:
Jackson apparently found some support for claims that Palmer was prosecuted due to race. ``By many standards, she was a peripheral player,'' he wrote. ``In contrast, one of the Caucasian individuals to whom the government granted immunity drove for one of the principles and testified that she could be considered as working for him.''
He questioned some of the charges against Palmer. He asked whether Palmer actually obstructed justice or whether she simply was ``not allowed to complete or expound upon some of her answers to questions before the grand jury.''
He said prosecutors contradicted themselves on the criteria used for granting immunity to witnesses. This called ``the legitimacy of the entire prosecution'' into question, he said.
Jackson, a former federal prosecutor, questioned the government's assertion that it did not keep comprehensive statistics on race. He observed that a prosecutor testified on Dec. 4 about several cases he tried where defendants were white.
Jackson said he found prosecutors' replies to his orders ``disingenuous and inconsistent.''
At least three defendants have already pleaded guilty, lawyers said. Thus, Jackson's ruling will not apply to them. The others will go to trial next year and their lawyers are expected to ask the judge to dismiss the charges on the same grounds of selective prosecution. They will then be decided on a case-by-case basis.
``I'm happy,'' Olvis' attorney, James Ellenson, said Thursday. ``I think Helen Fahey got her hand caught in the cookie jar. I think her position is outrageous considering that the identity of witnesses was . . . mentioned in open court on numerous occasions.''
Yet not everyone was happy with Thursday's order. A member of one Williamsburg community allegedly terrorized by the gangs said she was outraged by Jackson's decision.
``What are you going to do when there's shooting again on the streets?'' said the woman, who asked not to have her name used for fear of retaliation. ``Somebody needs to sit down and talk to this judge. I don't believe the man knows what's going on here and why these folks need to be locked up.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lynn Waltz contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Judge Raymond A. Jackson dismissed the charges because of
prosecutors' refusal to turn over working papers.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARRESTS INDICTMENT by CNB