OFFICERS ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING

But N.O. Woman's Lawsuit Isn't Typical

The police officers were drawn to her by the color of her skin and the
slick red Mustang she was driving in an Uptown neighborhood not her own.
Their suspicions were confirmed when they found a syringe and spoon inside
her purse.

Karen Vingle, 39, pleaded guilty to drug charges in exchange for two years
in prison, but her attorney wants an appeals court to dismiss the case on
grounds that she was unfairly stopped and searched by police because of her
race.

But this is not a typical complaint of racial profiling.

"Well, she was a white woman in a black neighborhood," officer Harry O'Neal
testified in court, saying Vingle fit a certain pattern known to police in
the part of New Orleans known as Pigeon Town, sometimes called Pension
Town. Police said they have arrested several white men and women cruising
the neighborhood in search of heroin and other illicit drugs.

Judge Leon Cannizzaro already has ruled that the arrest was proper, and he
refused to suppress any evidence recovered. But Vingle pleaded guilty on
the condition that she could challenge his decision to the 4th Circuit
Court of Appeal. In a 24-page brief, she said her constitutional rights
were violated when police approached her as a white woman in the "wrong place."

Vingle's attorney, Bernard Bagert Jr., acknowledges the irony of her
argument: Here is a woman who is white, he said, when historically it is
black men who accuse police of making illegal, race-based stops that
violate their civil rights.

"If we're going to apply the Constitution equally to all races, anybody who
is targeted because of their race has been violated," Bagert said. Vingle's
case "has framed this racial incongruity issue that is so frequent in a way
that cannot be ignored."

The district attorney's office hasn't responded in court to Vingle's
appeal, but in Cannizzaro's courtroom last year, officers said race wasn't
the sole factor in arresting her.

On Sept. 23, 1999, Vingle's Mustang had temporary license tags, and police
suspected there was an illegal tag scheme being run nearby. Police also
knew of a heroin dealer who lived near the 1200 block of Eagle Street,
where Vingle was stopped.

The race factor isn't Vingle's only legal complaint. She also says officers
violated her right to privacy by inspecting her purse without cause.

Police asked Vingle for her driver's license, and she searched through her
purse while they watched. While she looked through her purse, officers
spotted a syringe and a spoon that they said had traces of heroin and
cocaine, and half a Valium.

Vingle fought the charges until Dec. 14, 2000, when she agreed to plead
guilty to attempted possession of heroin, possession of cocaine and
possession of diazepam. Cannizzaro sentenced her to two years without
probation. But after serving a few months, she was released under a
Louisiana law in which offenders sentenced to less than 5 years are
entitled to a chance of bond while an appeal is pending.

Court records show she failed three drug tests late last year and didn't
show up at hearings in February and March, when her $5,000 cash bond was
forfeited.

Bagert said the appeals court will have to address whether race can help
form the basis of a reasonable police stop. In court, officers readily said
Vingle stood out in the neighborhood. Her route through Pigeon Town was
another tip-off, officer Andrew Roccaforte said.

Under questioning by Bagert, Roccaforte said white drivers on Oak and
Willow streets generally don't rouse his suspicions. But when they turn and
enter the neighborhood, he said, it makes him take a second look because of
the area's history of drug sales.