DEFENSE LAWYERS PROTEST SKID ROW DRUG CRACKDOWN

Attorneys Say Petty Offenders Are Getting Prison Time. LAPD Says Aim
Is to Help Those Trying to Quit Using Drugs.

Defense attorneys are protesting a drug crackdown on skid row, saying
petty narcotics users are increasingly being sent to prison instead
of receiving treatment that could cure their addictions.

Since September, police and prosecutors have targeted drug dealing in
the 5th Street corridor -- an area bordered by 4th and 6th streets,
Broadway and Central Avenue -- which police said was a hotspot of drug crimes.

Though law enforcement officials have hailed the effort, defense
lawyers say it is harming some who need help.

"They're basically cleaning out skid row by putting people into state
prison, where there really isn't room ... either," said Deputy Public
Defender Lisa Lichtenstein, who handles numerous downtown drug cases.

She said that since the fall, minor drug cases that in the past might
have resulted in possession charges that could lead to treatment have
been prosecuted as drug sales, which can result in prison sentences
for those convicted.

In many cases, Lichtenstein said, the drug sales charges are against
addicts selling a small amount to pay for their own habit. "These are
very small amounts of drugs, 10 dollars' worth, maybe $20," she said.

Prosecutors and police say they are indeed becoming more aggressive
against skid row drug offenders.

But Janet Moore, director of central operations for the district
attorney's office, said the tougher stance is aimed at ending a
"revolving door" for drug addicts with prior convictions.

"We're not targeting the homeless," she said.

Lt. Paul Vernon, LAPD spokesman, acknowledged that, as part of the
department's recent emphasis on skid row, stiffer penalties are being sought.

"We want to create an atmosphere for downtown -- for skid row -- for
people who go there for recovery purposes," he said, "so they can get
recovery without being confronted by people selling drugs.

"Of all places in city where penalties should be stiff," he added,
"it's down there -- to make sure the people selling drugs there are
kept out as much as possible, so that the people who are trying to
get off drugs have a chance to."

Robert De Carteret, a prosecutor who handles many drug cases
downtown, said that in the past, drug offenses were not prosecuted as
aggressively downtown as elsewhere. "We've moved the line to maybe
where it should have been all along," he said.