COURT OVERTURNS POSSESSION VERDICT 'DRUG MARKET' TESTIMONY HELD IMPROPER

A man convicted of possessing fake crack cocaine will get a new trial after
the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a judge improperly allowed
testimony that the man was arrested in what authorities considered an
"open-air market for drugs." The characterization of the downtown Raleigh
neighborhood where police picked up Michael Cornelius Williams in December
2002 was "inadmissible hearsay" that might have helped result in a wrongful
conviction, the court ruled unanimously.

Jurors found Williams, 34, guilty of possession with intent to sell
counterfeit cocaine and possession with intent to deliver counterfeit
cocaine. He was found to be a habitual felon and sentenced to up to 12
years and nine months in prison. Jurors acquitted him of the sale of
counterfeit cocaine and the delivery of crack cocaine.

The guilty verdicts shouldn't stand because jurors acquitted Williams of
selling the drugs, the judges said. Possessing counterfeit drugs is not a
crime.

Williams was arrested as he sat on a porch with several other men after two
other officers bought what they thought to be crack cocaine in the same
neighborhood. One officer said he saw Williams drop an item that looked
like crack, but analysis found it to be headache powder. The officers who
made the buy found later that they had paid $20 for a package of Goody's
Headache Powder.

Raleigh officer M.E. Campos identified Williams as the person who sold them
drugs, charges that the jury rejected.

"In that instance, North Carolina law would require acquittal because the
mere possession of a counterfeit controlled substance is not a crime,"
Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote for the three-judge panel. "We conclude
admission of the neighborhood's reputation was not harmless error as there
was not overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt."

During Williams' trial, his lawyer objected several times as Campos
described how "crack-heads" gathered in the neighborhood and drug dealers
waved down cars. Campos said he knew of 15 to 20 other arrests of suspected
drug dealers in the area.

Brian Michael Aus, a lawyer from Durham who represented Williams in his
appeal, said the testimony about the neighborhood undoubtedly played a role
in Williams' conviction since jurors determined that his client didn't sell
anything to the officers but only possessed the same substance that he had
bought.

"It basically made him guilty just by being in the neighborhood," Aus said
Tuesday.