SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS, OUT IN 2

Deal approved by Lake County prosecutor apparently flouted Indiana law

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter approved an agreement in late 1999
that led to a major drug dealer being let out of prison in apparent
violation of state law.

Viron Lamarr Lewis, the son of a prominent Gary criminal defense attorney,
was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. He was out in less than two.

Under Indiana law on modification of sentences, he should have been
required to serve at least six years, although good time credit could have
reduced that to three years.

Carter admitted that he agreed to Lewis' petition for sentence
modification, but he could not explain why he did so. He insisted he would
have paid no attention to the generous political contributions made to
Carter's campaign committee earlier in 1999 by Lewis' father.

As to the sentence modification itself being illegal, Carter suggested that
prison authorities should have spotted the problem and not released Lewis,
despite the judge's order to do so immediately.

"When the court tells us to do something, we do it," said Sharon Hawk,
administrative assistant to the superintendent of the state prison at
Westville.

Lake County Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray, who could not be reached
for comment, approved the "agreed order" which Carter said he authorized.
It is routine for judges to approve orders that have been agreed to by both
sides in a case.

BIG BUYS

Viron Lewis was what might be called a drug dealer's drug dealer.

On each of three days in November 1997, an informant working with the Lake
County Drug Task Force purchased more than 28 grams of cocaine from Lewis
for $1,100. The next month and in January 1998, police informants made
three more buys from Lewis at his Gary home at 222 Porter St., at prices
ranging from $250 to $500, according to the police probable cause affidavit.

Dealing in just 3 grams of cocaine is a Class A felony in Indiana
punishable by a minimum 20-year prison sentence.

Lewis' six alleged sales involved about 120 grams. Upon executing a search
warrant at Lewis' home, police seized more than a half kilogram, or over a
pound, of cocaine.

Lewis was charged with committing a Class A felony. He pled to a Class B,
which provides for a prison term ranging from six to 20 years.

Carter recalled that Lewis sought to plead to a Class C felony, punishable
by a two-to eight-year prison sentence. But Carter said that, based on the
seriousness of the police allegations, he insisted that it be a Class B plea.

As part of the deal, Lewis admitted he possessed, with intent to deliver,
549 grams of cocaine at his house on Jan. 12, 1998, along with more than
$13,000 cash and a digital scale to measure cocaine.

A gram of cocaine is often divided into 10 hits, selling for $10 apiece.

SENTENCE STIFFED

Citing Lewis' "dishonest, manipulative" character, the "high" risk that he
will commit another crime, and his prior criminal record for marijuana
possession and drug abuse, Lake County Superior Court Judge James E.
Letsinger on Aug. 10, 1998, added two years to the standard 10-year
sentence for a Class B felony.

The judge gave 207 days credit for the time Lewis already spent in Lake
County Jail since his arrest in January of that year.

Early in 1999, Letsinger retired from the bench.

On Nov. 24, 1999, Lewis' attorney, Noah Holcomb, petitioned for his
client's release from prison.

Lewis, he argued, had "soberly learned a lesson from his lengthy
incarceration" and would be "unlikely to commit another crime" given his
"present attitude, character and conduct."

Holcomb incorrectly claimed in the petition that Lewis "has served more
than three years" of the 12-year sentence.

A month later, an "agreed order" signed by Holcomb and Christopher
McQuillin, then drug unit supervisor in the prosecutor's office,
incorrectly claimed that Lewis "has served almost three years" of his sentence.

In fact, Lewis' total time behind bars on his drug dealing conviction
amounted to 22 months.

The signed agreed order sought to modify Lewis' sentence to time served.
Such agreed orders are regularly approved by judges, and that's what judge
Murray did on Dec. 15, 1999.

Prison records show Lewis was released five days later.

MIXED RECORD

On Jan. 4, prison authorities sent a "progress report" on Lewis to Murray.
It showed a mixed record.

In 1998, he was sanctioned for "attempting to traffic" which, in prison,
means giving or receiving of any type of goods against the rules. He also
was cited for "refusing to obey an order." Prison authorities said they
cannot make the details of the transgressions public.

On prison jobs, Lewis received one "outstanding" and one "average"
evaluation. He completed classes on anger management, lifestyle change and
substance abuse.

"I make no recommendations as to a prognosis for Offender Lewis," concluded
corrections counselor Martha Black in her letter to the judge.

Criminal defense attorney Robert L. Lewis, the father of Viron Lewis, said
he had worked on the case along with Holcomb. Court records show that the
agreed order signed by Holcomb and prosecutor McQuillin was faxed from
Lewis' law office.

"It could have been a typo," said Lewis when asked about the order's claim
that Viron Lewis already had served nearly three years. He later said he
really had believed his son had served three years.

Holcomb agreed that it must have been a simple mistake. As to the Indiana
law that restricts sentence modifications to no less than the minimum
six-year sentence in Class B felonies involving more than three grams of
cocaine, Holcomb said the prosecutors and defense lawyers alike must have
just forgotten about the statute.

"Nobody tried to pull the wool over anybody's eyes," he said, adding that
when that happens among lawyers, "word gets out pretty fast that you are
trying to engage in what's commonly known as sharp practice. So people
watch you like a hawk."

SHOCK PROBATION

Robert Lewis said it was just for his son to be released from prison early
since "he was an exemplary inmate ... He hasn't gotten into any trouble
since he was released ... I think the court was wise in doing what it did,
because he's not now a burden on the taxpayer and he's self-sufficient."

Asked what his son is doing now, Lewis said, "I don't recall."

Holcomb called Viron Lewis' 12-year sentence "a form of shock probation"
used by judges to "shock you into good behavior."

With good time, that sentence would be cut to six years, but Holcomb said
even a six-year sentence was harsh, given that Lewis was only 20 or 22. "If
at age 22 somebody had said you've got to be locked up until you're 28,
that would have been the end of the world for me," Holcomb said. He said
Lewis' youth and changed character were the key reasons for the court's
subsequent leniency.

In fact, Lewis was 28 when he was arrested for dealing in cocaine.

Under federal law, sentence modifications are restricted to cases in which
convicts work with police to make cases against other criminals or a few
instances of extreme medical hardship such as a terminal illness.

In Lake County, Carter said, sentence modifications are "very rare."

In fact, Carter suggested that Viron Lewis' modification "might be the only
one I've ever moved on absent technical problems" with the plea bargain
agreement itself or cooperation with police.

He recalled that Lewis' "attorneys argued that he was reformed. He wanted
to get his life straight," Carter said. But he also said he hears that kind
of argument all the time, and doesn't act on it. He had no explanation why
he listened this time, though he emphasized he initially had insisted upon
the Class B conviction after Lewis sought to plead to a Class C felony.

As to Robert Lewis' contribution of $2,000 to Carter's campaign committee
in 1999 -- $1,000 in February and $1,000 in July -- Carter said he wouldn't
even have known about the donation until he signed his committee report
after the turn of the year, though he said he may have noticed that Robert
Lewis and others in his law firm had come to his fund-raiser.

Lewis asserted his political support of Carter had nothing to do with the
prosecutor's support of the sentence modification for his son. "I've been a
generous contributor to the governor and to other politicians," Lewis noted.

His generosity to Carter's campaign committee, however, did not extend to
the year 2000, when Citizens for Carter reported no contribution from the
Gary lawyer, though the committee raised almost as much money that year as
it did in 1999.