CONVICTED DRUG DEALER FACES PRISON STINT

New-Found Faith And Vow To Change Doesn't Sway Judge

PRINCETON - A convicted drug dealer's assertions Friday that he "took the
wrong road" but has found religion and vows to change his life failed to
sway a judge in Bureau County Circuit Court.

Associate Circuit Judge Scott Madson sentenced Chance T. Brown, 26, to six
years in prison, saying his record negated his plea for mercy.

"Mr. Brown, you're no stranger to the judicial system," Madson said.

As the sentence was handed down, Brown smiled and nodded at the judge and
left quietly for the jail with Deputy Cliff Morse.

Brown was arrested Feb. 6 in Spring Valley by State Police District 17 Drug
Task Force officers acting on a LaSalle County warrant charging him with
reckless conduct.

According to trial evidence, the officers approached Brown as he was
getting into a car.

When they ordered him to place his hands on the dashboard, Brown locked the
doors, fumbled through his pockets, yanked five small plastic bags of rock
cocaine from a larger plastic bag and swallowed the evidence.

Brown was taken immediately to St. Margaret's Hospital in Spring Valley. He
refused treatment but did submit to an X-ray that showed the bags of
cocaine in his digestive system.

A dose of laxative later, police were able to retrieve four of the bags.
Brown apparently digested the fifth. At trial and at the sentencing hearing
Friday, Brown said he was only "holding" the drug for a friend, and he
insisted he never told investigators, "I don't do it for a living. I do it
for my kids."

During closing arguments at the trial, public defender Michael Henneberry
argued, "Being stupid is not a criminal offense."

Brown told Madson he wants to slow his life down and said being in jail for
the past five months "has made me a better person." Brown also asked for
probation, saying, "I want to see my kids."

According to testimony at the hearing, Brown has four children - the
youngest is 7 - by four different women and is not obliged to pay child
support for any of them.

Still pending against Brown is a November 2000 case in Will County, where
Brown is charged with the same offense of unlawful possession with intent
to deliver cocaine. He was out on bond on that charge when he was arrested
in Spring Valley.

Brown said Friday he was driving someone else's car at the time and will
fight the charge in Will County.

Henneberry said Will County police found 54 grams of cocaine on Brown after
four hours and three searches and suggested that police may have planted
the evidence.