WOMAN IN AIRPORT CASE NOT GUILTY

Jury Backs Traveler Who Said Sons Were Stopped Because Of Race

Barbara McGregory says she spent the better part of $5,000 to fight a $400
ticket as a matter of principle.

"We were being harassed and I believe it was racial," said McGregory, who
is black.

Sheriff's Department officials say their interest in McGregory and her two
sons at Mitchell International Airport had nothing to do with race.

"They were stopped and questioned by interdiction officers who overheard a
discussion about drugs," explained Capt. Sherry Weber, a department
spokeswoman. "That is the officers' assignment."

The department and McGregory may never see eye-to-eye on what led to her
ticket, but she got the satisfaction last week of a jury telling her she
was not guilty. So while the Kansas City resident may have left town with
added room in her wallet, she considered her money well spent.

"I did nothing wrong," she said. "It just seemed so unfair.

"There was never a thought about not fighting this."

McGregory, 49, got her disorderly conduct ticket at the airport on March 24
when she and her two sons, 31 and 26, were waiting for a connection to
Grand Rapids, Mich., to visit her ailing father.

While headed for the main concourse to eat, they passed through a security
checkpoint and past two undercover deputies. As they did so, they discussed
a relative's recently received prison sentence for drug trafficking.

"Mama, it was crack cocaine, not powder cocaine," one of her sons told
McGregory, a retired AT&T employee, of the drug that sent the relative to
the penitentiary.

After clearing the checkpoint, McGregory visited a nearby lavatory. When
she returned she found her sons with the undercover officers discussing the
discussion.

"The two sons immediately cooperated, admitting, in fact, that they were
conversing about drugs," Sgt. Daniel Lent, one of the officers later wrote
on the citation.

What happened when McGregory joined the discussion remains a matter of some
dispute between her and Lent. Suffice it to say that she disapproved of the
stop and interrogation as well as Lent's demeanor, while he took issue with
her attitude.

McGregory, whose father is a retired police officer, accused Lent, who is
white, of stopping her and her sons because they were black. He flatly
denied it - in the airport, during the trial and after the trial.

"In an international airport, suspicions are heightened over certain
things, like discussions about drugs, in this case cocaine," Weber said on
Lent's behalf after the trial.

McGregory's attorney, John Schiro, says he believes that suspicions were
heightened because it was black people discussing cocaine, not merely
because there was a discussion about cocaine.

"White people, like myself, could have that same conversation and not be
stopped," Schiro said. "Besides, this was just a casual conversation in
front of other people.

"This wasn't whispering."

McGregory got her ticket when she continued protesting the stop and,
according to Lent, became "loud and boisterous" when he told her to calm down.

"Defendant refused and further continued to yell and disturb other
passengers," Lent wrote on the ticket.

McGregory was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a holding cell but released
after booking in time to catch up with her sons and her flight.

The case went to trial Tuesday before Circuit Judge Jean W. DiMotto with
Lent and McGregory appearing as the only witnesses. Nevertheless, the trial
lasted a day and a half.

"It was a vigorously contested case on both sides," DiMotto said later.

The six-member jury - three whites and three blacks - deliberated less than
one hour before finding McGregory not guilty, a verdict that brought tears
to her eyes.

The verdict salved her to the point of making the plane fare, two-night
hotel stay and attorney fees worthwhile.

"It proved me not guilty," she said.

Weber, meanwhile, said Lent and his partner were vindicated themselves.
Internal affairs officers looked into the stop after McGregory filed a
professional standards complaint with the department.

"They acted properly in giving her the disorderly conduct citation based on
what witnesses at the airport told the investigators," Weber said. "They
stopped them because of what they were talking about and that is
appropriate in a situation where security is more intense."