JUDGE BLOCKS EFFORTS BY STRANGERS TO POST BAIL FOR DRUG SUSPECT

First a juror, and then an investment banker and a civil rights
advocate who are opposed to New York's harsh drug laws have tried to
post bail for a man in jail awaiting retrial on charges that he sold
$10 of heroin.

A Manhattan judge blocked that effort for the second time yesterday,
ruling that the defendant would have no incentive to return to court
if strangers were allowed to post bail.

The case of Calvin Baker, 37, might have remained yet another minor
drug case. But mounting protest over New York's strict Rockefeller-era
drug laws have turned it into a legal football.

In March, a jury began its deliberations in Mr. Baker's case. He was
arrested on Dec. 12, 1999, after a police officer witnessed a drug
deal in Harlem through binoculars from 270 feet away, according to
trial testimony. And because Mr. Baker had a prior record, he was
facing a sentence of four-and-a-half to nine years if convicted.

It took two hours for 11 jurors to decide he was guilty. But the 12th
juror, Paula Thomson, 54, said she believed that the evidence was
flimsy. And so she held out for three days. On March 29, the judge,
Marcy L. Kahn of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, declared a mistrial.

Mr. Baker's lawyer, Leonard Levenson, said that shortly afterward, Ms.
Thomson called him, dismayed to learn that Mr. Baker had already spent
15 months in jail because he had been unable to post the $2,500 in
bail and that he had been returned to jail after the mistrial. At
first, Ms. Thomson asked whether she could find Mr. Baker a job, Mr.
Levenson said. Then, she posted the bail.

Justice Kahn then ordered another bail hearing. After 10 days of
freedom, Mr. Baker returned on April 9 and appeared before Justice
Bonnie B. Wittner, who rejected Ms. Thomson's efforts and raised Mr.
Baker's bail to $10,000.

"She was aware that the jury verdict was by 11 to 1," said Assistant
District Attorney John Martin. "And one of the factors in bail is the
likelihood of conviction."

But the judge also said that because Mr. Baker had no connection to
Ms. Thomson, $2,500 was not enough to assure his return to court.

That is when a senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Company
Peter Grier, got involved, after reading a news account of the increase.

"I thought a terrible tragedy had been perpetrated on this individual
and on me as a taxpayer," Mr. Grier said yesterday. And so he decided
to put up $6,500 in bail, with the advocate, Randy Credico, director
of operations of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice,
providing $3,500.

Yesterday, Mr. Baker was back in court to find out whether Justice
Wittner would accept yet another bail payment from yet another round
of strangers. Mr. Credico was asked by the prosecutors to take the
stand.

An assistant district attorney, Kenneth Chalifoux, asked about the
source of Mr. Credico's bail money, his motives in posting it and even
his political affiliations, questioning whether he or Mr. Grier were
involved in organizations that oppose the drug laws.

Then another prosecutor, Mr. Martin, asserted that it violated public
policy to let strangers post bail. "The motive of the people for
posting bail is to gain publicity for their political causes," he
said, and they would not "care a whit" if Mr. Baker did not return.

Again, Justice Wittner turned down the bail. And as Mr. Baker yelled a
profanity as he was led away in handcuffs, she ordered that the
comment be entered into the record.

Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University law school and an
expert in legal ethics, said that the system appeared to be
duplicitous in Mr. Baker's case. He added, "There is nothing in the
New York criminal procedure that forbids strangers from helping
someone who may be the victim of injustice."

Last night, Mr. Grier, Ms. Thomson and Mr. Credico were despondent but
vowed to fight on.