Co-Conspirators Testify In Trial

NEW YORK CITY MAN FACES 10 YEARS ON FEDERAL DRUG CHARGES

The Defendant's Attorney's Attack On The Prosecution Witnesses'
Credibility Was Not Enough.

The former lawyer to Puff Daddy was not able to save a New York City man
from conviction on drug conspiracy charges in a Roanoke federal court Thursday.

A jury took just over an hour and a half to determine that Adrian Patrick
of the Bronx was the same person as a man known as Age, the supplier of a
cocaine pipeline that fed Roanoke from the mid - 1990s. Patrick, 36, faces
a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and was taken into custody after
the verdict was announced.

The three-day trial resulted from what began as an investigation into
corruption of certain officers on the Roanoke police force. Federal
authorities identified a major local cocaine ring, whose leader, Robert
Tyrone Adams, had ties to former Roanoke police officers Frederick Pledge
and Levert Jackson.

Patrick's attorney, Harvey Slovis, argued the prosecution had not provided
ample evidence that Patrick was really Age and attacked the prosecution
witnesses' credibility.

Many of the prosecution witnesses were co-conspirators who had pleaded
guilty just before Patrick's trial. One was Adams, who Slovis argued also
threatened people and was involved with firearms, then lied on the stand
about it.

"If Mr. Adams can't tell the truth about some things, then why do you think
he can tell the truth about this man?" Slovis asked, referring to his client.

Adams pleaded guilty and was convicted along with three other men:
Christopher Hodges and Rodney Eugene Shell of Roanoke and Troy Duane
Sergenton of North Carolina. A fourth conspirator, Roderick "Giz"
Perrineau, who federal authorities allege was the connection between Adams
and Patrick, was also indicted but is still at large.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant, who prosecuted the case with federal
prosecutor Ruth Plagenhoef, argued that the prosecution did not get to
choose its witnesses - they had to rely on the people who knew the defendant.

"It's only the people who associate with the defendant who know what he
does," Bondurant said.

Slovis also repeatedly attacked the witnesses for having made deals with
the prosecution in exchange for their cooperation in the case.

But Bondurant responded in his closing argument, "The government makes no
apologies whatsoever for cutting deals to get Mr. Big."

The case, which involved both powder and crack cocaine, was investigated by
Donald Canestraro and other agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration.