THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030321
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Two members of a Peninsula drug gang - who pleaded guilty last year to drug conspiracy charges shortly before a federal judge dismissed their co-defendants' cases because of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct - were sentenced this week to prison.
On Thursday, Raymond S. Paige was sentenced to 14 years without parole. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 25 to one count of drug conspiracy.
On Friday, Christopher M. Jones was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison without parole. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 2 to drug conspiracy.
Both men were co-defendants of Anthony L. Olvis and Angela D. Palmer, whose indictments charging drug conspiracy and money laundering were dismissed on Dec. 20 by Judge Raymond A. Jackson.
Jackson claimed 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.
Federal prosecutors immediately appealed Jackson's decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Jan. 4, Jackson delayed the trials of about 20 other co-defendants until the appeals court rules. No date has been scheduled for arguments, court officials said on Friday.
But none of these rulings helped Paige or Jones this week. They pleaded guilty to charges before the objections raised by lawyers for Olvis and Palmer. Defendants often waive their rights to further arguments when signing federal plea agreements and receiving reduced sentences.
On Friday, Jones asked federal judge Henry C. Morgan Jr. to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming he would not have pleaded guilty in November if he had known about the allegations of selective prosecution that surfaced the following month.
But during testimony Friday, Jones also stuck by his confession to police that he sold drugs for Olvis. A state police investigator also testified that Jones, a ``lieutenant'' in Olvis' organization, traveled to New York at least three times to buy crack cocaine for the gang.
Morgan denied Jones' request, saying his motion came too late. Morgan added there was no indication that prosecutors withheld evidence when the plea was made.
Paige, on the other hand, did not ask to withdraw his plea when sentenced on Thursday. ``Either you're guilty or you're not,'' said his attorney, Douglas Fredericks. ``Either you accept responsibility, or you don't.''
Paige and Jones' co-defendants all 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, who pleaded guilty Nov. 6 but has yet to be sentenced; and Marty L. Wright of Virginia Beach - were arrested in September with their co-defendants.
The three gangs allegedly staked out separate territories and worked as friendly competitors. But prosecutors also alleged there was considerable violence associated with the gangs, including beatings, shootings and 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 also produced federal court records which, they said, hinted at a pattern of discrimination. 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.
The allegations that some white gang members may have been granted immunity while ``similarly situated'' blacks were not figured most heavily in Jackson's decision to order prosecutors to turn over more evidence, his rulings show. When prosecutors refused, Jackson then dismissed the indictments and even hinted that further refusals could lead to jail.
Prosecutors reacted angrily to Jackson's ruling, saying they have not engaged in selective prosecution and predicting that his action could unleash a flurry of motions affecting virtually every federal drug case against black defendants in Virginia's Eastern District.
So far, that has not happened. Motions to dismiss charges have been filed in only about four or five cases, court officials said. So far, all of the motions that have come before a judge have been dismissed.
On Jan. 4, a federal judge in Richmond turned down a motion to dismiss capital murder and heroin distribution charges against Robert Williams and Marvin Damon.
Then, on Jan. 22, two federal judges in Norfolk turned down similar motions in the unrelated drug cases of Elray Rogers and Eltrentrose F. Liverman.
In all three cases, defense lawyers tried to piggyback their objections to the statistics quoted in Jackson's ruling. But they were unable to show specific instances - as happened with Olvis and Palmer - where whites were granted immunity while similarly situated blacks were not.
Case law in the 4th Circuit demands that both ``prongs'' be satisfied before a judge can consider a claim of selective prosecution, court records show.
KEYWORDS: DRUGS ILLEGAL SENTENCING by CNB