JUDGE ACQUITS MAN DESPITE DRUG POSSESSION

Cites Racial Profiling: Chasing of Black Man 'Psychological
Detention,' Court Says

MONTREAL - A lawyer who won a precedent-setting drug case on the
grounds that her black client was a victim of racial profiling
encouraged other Quebec defence lawyers yesterday to follow her lead.

In a ruling published on Tuesday, Quebec Court Judge Juanita
Westmoreland-Traore acquitted 24-year-old Alexer Campbell despite the
fact that he was in violation of a court-ordered curfew at the time of
his arrest, he ran from police when they tried to stop him and he was
carrying 1.5 grams of marijuana and weigh scales.

"I think that it will sensitize defence lawyers more to facts that
seem to suggest that the initial detention of somebody was based on
what the person looks like, rather than what they've done," Judith Ann
Shapiro Knight, Mr. Campbell's lawyer, said in an interview.
"Hopefully it will be used more."

Mr. Campbell was breaking a 10 p.m. curfew imposed following a
previous arrest for narcotics possession when he caught the attention
of two Montreal police officers in a patrol car one night last April.

The officers said they initially became suspicious when they saw Mr.
Campbell hunched over in the back of a taxi as if he were trying to
avoid being seen. One of the officers testified that when they pulled
alongside the taxi, they recognized the passenger as a known drug
trafficker. He said he had been informed recently of Mr. Campbell's
curfew by a fellow officer.

They drove up to Mr. Campbell after he left the taxi, and one of the
officers got out and called to him. Mr. Campbell ran away, and the
officers chased and tackled him. They searched him -- according to Mr.
Campbell they pulled his pants down to his knees -- finding the
marijuana and electronic scales. After taking him to the station, they
discovered a bag containing 26 grams of crack cocaine under the seat
where Mr. Campbell had been sitting.

He was charged with possession of cocaine for the purposes of
trafficking and possession of marijuana for the purposes of
trafficking.

Judge Westmoreland-Traore contested the officers' claim that bending
over in a taxi constitutes suspicious behaviour. She said their
pursuit in the cruiser and then on foot amounted to "psychological
detention" because it restrained Mr. Campbell's freedom of movement.

The detention, she wrote, "was unlawful because it was based on racial
profiling." The fact that Mr. Campbell fled when the officer called
out to him cannot be interpreted as an indication of guilt because
minorities often mistrust the police, she added: "In the context of a
minority person, his reflex to move away from the police does not
necessarily infer that he had committed an offence."

Although it was not disputed that Mr. Campbell was violating his
curfew, Judge Westmoreland-Traore chastised the officers for not
verifying his bail conditions using the police computer in their cruiser.

In what observers say is the first ruling of its kind by a Quebec
judge, she concluded that police committed a "very serious breach" of
Mr. Campbell's constitutional rights.

Crown prosecutor Marie-Josee Theriault said yesterday the Crown is
studying the decision before deciding whether to appeal. Neither the
Montreal police service nor the police union wished to comment.

Ms. Shapiro Knight acknowledged that someone caught fleeing police
with drugs and scales in his possession might not be the most
sympathetic victim of human rights abuse, but she said it takes a case
like this to raise awareness of abusive police practices.

"The other people who are profiled and tackled and searched and
nothing is found on them don't go to court," she said.

Fo Niemi, executive director of a Montreal race-relations group, said
it is not surprising the ruling came from Judge Westmoreland-Traore,
who in 1999 became the first black judge in Quebec. "She has that eye
for issues of discrimination," he said.

Mr. Niemi predicted that her ruling "will compel the entire judiciary
and the Crown prosecutors to really learn about racial profiling
within the context of criminal law and within the context of human
rights law."