CRITICIZED JUDGE SENTENCES WOMAN AS YOUTH

A Hillsborough Circuit Judge Finds A Way Around A Mandatory Three-Year
Prison Sentence For A Drug Defendant

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Florence Foster, who has been criticized by some
as too soft on drug defendants, Tuesday suspended the three-year prison
sentence of a woman charged with trafficking in methamphetamines.

State law calls for a mandatory three-year prison term for a conviction of
the first-degree felony, but Foster imposed a lesser sentence by deciding
that Marie Manning was a youthful offender. Foster said the offense
occurred two months before Manning turned 21, the limit for youthful offenders.

Prosecutors complained that Foster should not have been handling Manning's
case because of a recent administrative order that removed Foster and
another drug court judge from first-degree felony cases. Assistant State
Attorney Steve Wetter objected to Foster's sentence in the Manning case. He
had asked for a seven-year prison sentence.

A first-time offender, Manning, now 22, agreed to plead guilty to the
trafficking charge after Foster indicated at a hearing last week that the
defendant would not go to prison.

The sentence included probation and time at a drug treatment facility in
Avon Park.

Foster could not be reached for comment.

Foster has drawn the criticism of prosecutors who accuse her of being
lenient with offenders, pointing to a pair of recent cases.

Last month, Foster refused to sentence a repeat drug offender to prison
because she said he was too small and white and would become a sexual target.

Her comments drew fire from prosecutors and the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.

Prosecutors said that under state sentencing guidelines, 41-year-old Paul
Hamill should have been given two years in prison for repeatedly violating
probation on a drug offense. Instead, Foster ordered Hamill into a drug
treatment facility and sentenced him to two years of community control.
Foster's reasons for not sending Hamill to prison prompted the NAACP to
file a formal complaint. Foster apologized.

More trouble followed when Foster allowed a Hillsborough County jail inmate
charged with 17 counts of possession and delivery of cocaine to leave jail
to attend his grandmother's funeral.

Roy Nathan, 20, was released from the Orient Road Jail on Feb. 3 to attend
the funeral. Foster signed the furlough order.

She instructed him to return by 5 p.m. that day, but Nathan didn't.
Instead, he and his girlfriend bolted, deputies said. Both were arrested
the next day at a Tampa motel.