MINORITY DRUG CASES CHALLENGED

SEATTLE -- Lawyers representing 19 people accused of dealing drugs are
asking for the cases to be thrown out, pointing to a report by Harvard
University researchers that found minorities are disproportionately
targeted for drug arrests in the city.

The report, requested by the Seattle-King County Public Defender
Association and released earlier this month, found that although blacks
constitute only 6 percent to 7 percent of drug users in King County, they
account for 57 percent of adult drug arrests.

In papers filed Thursday in King County Superior Court, lawyers for the 19
argued that the reason so many blacks are arrested is that Seattle police
focus undercover drug patrols in minority neighborhoods while largely
ignoring drug deals in predominantly white areas such as the University
District.

The 19 defendants are all black or Latino or appear to be so, court papers
said.

"If you only put police in very limited places, it's a choice not to
enforce the law in certain other places," public defender Lisa Daugaard,
who is representing two of the defendants, said Wednesday evening.

At a court hearing Thursday, the defendants were awarded a consolidation
motion, which will allow the 12 lawyers of record to work together,
Daugaard said.

King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones asked prosecutors and the
defense lawyers to meet again next week.

So far, no one in these cases is accusing the police of deliberate
discrimination, but simply saying the disparity existed, Daugaard said.

Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said Thursday he has met with minority groups
to discuss the report. He said the report didn't come as a surprise.

"The police department goes where we get complaints and where we receive
information," Kerlikowske said. "The open-air drug markets, especially in
the downtown area, have higher percentages of arrests that are minorities.
But I don't think it's an issue of racial profiling or targeting. It's an
open-air drug issue."

The six-month Harvard report studied 3,000 arrests in 1999. It found that
of the police department's four precincts, the West Precinct received the
fewest number of complaints about drugs, 12.5 percent, yet had the most
drug arrests, 50 percent.

All 19 defendants were arrested in sting operations where police posed as
drug buyers, and all were arrested in the West Precinct, which includes
most of downtown, as well as the Queen Anne and Magnolia residential areas.

Daugaard said she also takes issue with police focusing on drug deals that
take place in public. While those may be the easiest to stop, that's no
reason not to focus on deals that take place in apartments or homes in
outlying neighborhoods, she said.

The Harvard report said arrests based on search warrants of homes have
declined in the past few years. By returning to making more of those types
of arrests, police could target a broader, fairer segment of the
population, Daugaard said.