TRENTON: SENTENCE REDUCTION SOUGHT

A young black man who is suing former Gov. Christie Whitman for
patting him down during a drug sweep in Camden in 1996 is asking the
State Supreme Court to reduce a sentence he received for a subsequent
drug conviction. In a case unrelated to the pat-down, a lawyer for
the man, Sherron Rolax, told the court that the four-year sentence he
received for a 1997 cocaine possession charge was inconsistent with
statewide sentencing practices. The court did not issue a ruling in
the case. A photograph of the pat-down showing a smiling Mrs.
Whitman, now head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, was
widely published last year.