JUDGE CALLS FOR BIAS REVIEW

Cites Disparity in Middlesex

AMBRIDGE - A judge who had accused prosecutors of recommending
harsher sentences for black defendants in drug cases yesterday asked
the Middlesex district attorney's office to participate in an outside
study of how it handles narcotics cases involving minorities.

''By doing so, the ominous cloud hanging over our criminal justice
system that has been lingering ... can be removed,'' Cambridge
District Court Judge Severlin B. Singleton III said, reading from a
six-page ruling.

The unusual request followed a decision by Singleton to vacate the
guilty plea of a black defendant, Bertrand Lamitie, 24, whose six-
month sentence the judge said was unjust.

Singleton's public criticism of drug sentencing practices - first
made in August - is so rare that several other judges lingered near
the courtroom yesterday to catch word of his decision in Lamitie's
case.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, who has repeatedly said
race is not a factor in her office's handling of cases, said she
might be open to a study.

''I do feel very strongly that this office has and will participate
in any reviews of what appears to be systemwide bias in terms of race
or gender,'' Coakley said in an interview. ''Until I know
specifically what he's referring to it's hard to respond.''

Singleton said, among other things, that Middlesex prosecutors
considered crack cocaine more dangerous than the powder form of the
drug - a debate that has raged nationally.

Tougher attitudes and sentences for crack cocaine users and sellers
are called racist by some critics because crack cocaine is more
frequently used by blacks in poor neighborhoods, while powder cocaine
is more often the drug of choice of the white and affluent.

Singleton yesterday threw out the guilty plea that Lamitie entered in
June. He then recused himself from further involvement in the case.

Prosecutors immediately gave notice they might appeal. If Singleton's
ruling stands, Lamitie must either plead guilty again or go to trial
before another judge.

Singleton said that he didn't buy Coakley's explanation for why
prosecutors recommended six months in jail for Lamitie, who was
charged with selling crack cocaine, but no jail time for Jared
Cedrone, a white man charged with selling powder cocaine.

However, the judge stressed that he doesn't believe prosecutors
consciously recommended a sentence based on race.

''Although two cases may not prove racial bias in the district
attorney's office, they do contribute to the perception that
Massachusetts is unable to deliver justice to all of its citizens,''
said Singleton, who is black. ''The cases are also symbolic of the
systemic racial bias that permeates the criminal justice system.''

Both Lamitie and Cedrone were arrested with relatively small amounts
of cocaine in a Cambridge school zone and charged with intent to sell
it. But prosecutors said Lamitie, even though he was a first-time
offender, clearly intended to sell crack cocaine, and Cedrone,
although he was a repeat offender, appeared to be a user rather than
a dealer.

Both men had been charged with selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a
school, a crime that carries a mandatory minimum two-year prison
term. But prosecutors had dropped that charge in both cases under
plea agreements.

Federal sentencing laws are much harsher for defendants possessing
crack cocaine than for those with the powder form of the drug. While
some states have similar laws, Massachusetts does not.

Still, some say that prosecutors and law enforcement officials make a
distinction between crack and powder cocaine, arguing that crack
leads to more violence and social decay.

The federal sentencing guidelines - and corresponding attitudes -
grew out of public hysteria over crack cocaine in the 1980s and the
drug's connection to rising crime, said James Alan Fox, a
criminologist at Northeastern University.

''Powdered cocaine was traditionally seen as a drug associated with
yuppies and the rich and famous,'' said Fox, ''whereas crack cocaine
was seen as a drug of the inner-city poor, heavily involved with
drugs and gangs, and in particular crime.''

But as crime levels have dropped and other drugs have risen in
popularity, Fox said, he believes prosecutors no longer make such a
distinction between crack and powder cocaine.

Coakley said yesterday that the form of cocaine was not a major
factor in her office's decisions about the two cases. But Singleton
isn't so sure.

He noted that in Coakley's response to an earlier query from him she
wrote that Lamitie possessed ''highly-addictive crack cocaine,''
while Cedrone possessed ''packets'' of powder cocaine.

Mark Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit
research group, says some research, including a congressional report
in 1995, shows that powder cocaine is as addictive as crack.