EX-TULANE STAR'S 18-YEAR SENTENCE ENOUGH, JUDGE SAYS

Former Tulane football star Toney Converse faces 18 years in prison after a
state judge, citing his young age, refused to resentence him Tuesday to up
to 60 years for his second felony conviction.

A Jefferson Parish jury convicted Converse, 23, in November on four counts
of cocaine distribution and one count of possession with intent to
distribute the drug. He had a prior conviction for obstruction of justice
in 1999.

Judge Joan Benge of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Converse to
18 years in December, but prosecutors requested that he be resentenced as a
multiple offender.

"But I thought 18 years was enough time for a young man of his age," Benge
said. "That's a long time in jail."

Converse will be eligible for parole, but if and when that happens will be
up to the state corrections department, Benge said. As a second offender,
he will not be eligible for good time.

Converse's career as a star college athlete "neither gained points nor lost
points for him," Benge said. "That made no difference to me at all. I
treated him like any other young man. I don't care whether he was a college
star or an eighth-grade dropout. He was dealing drugs in Jefferson Parish. "

The Legislature recently passed laws lessening the penalty for drug
offenses, sending a message that some shorter sentences need to be handed
down to lessen ever-increasing jail crowding, Benge said.

At the hearing, defense attorney Russell Stegeman pleaded for Benge to
sentence Converse to the minimum of 15 years. Stegeman asked Benge "not to
throw him away."

Benge said she refused to grant the minimum sentence because there is no
doubt Converse was a drug dealer. At one point he said on a videotape taken
by undercover officers that he had to contact "my people in Texas" about
getting some more drugs. "The fact that he referred to his 'people in
Texas' showed that he was actively involved as a dealer," Benge said.
Converse, who was a star running back for Tulane's 1998 undefeated team,
which won the Liberty Bowl that year, made four crack cocaine sales to
undercover deputies between April 18 and May 7, 2001. Deputies arrested him
as he was preparing to make a fifth sale May 10 at a service station at
Labarre Road and Jefferson Highway. He tried to flee but was tackled by a
deputy.

He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 1999 after officers caught
him flushing cocaine down a toilet. He claimed the drugs belonged to
another member of his family and was placed on probation.