JUDGE: POLICE STOPPED DRIVER BASED ON RACE

U.S. District Judge Bruce D. Black has tossed out key evidence in a
narcotics case, charging officers built the case based entirely on the
defendant's race.

The ruling stems from a traffic stop and drug trafficking case involving a
California man who was stopped on I-40 near Gallup by State Police officers.

The judge ruled that the officers made the stop only because the driver,
Francisco Jivier Alcala-Castro, "was an Hispanic male."

The traffic stop, and subsequent drug trafficking investigation, occurred
on Nov. 7, 1999.

Black ruled Thursday that the investigation violated the constitutional
"equal protection" rights of Alcala-Castro.

"This ruling has huge significance, in the fact that the judge found that
ethnic profiling by the State Police was occurring, and that it was
Alcala-Castro's race which determined whether he was going to get stopped,
and investigated beyond the stop," said Paul Kennedy, Alcala-Castro's
defense attorney.

Alcala-Castro, a Mexican national who is a legal resident of the United
States, was driving from Salinas, Calif., to Oklahoma City when he was
stopped by two State Police officers. They claimed he was going two miles
over the 75 mph speed limit.

After Alcala-Castro signed his citation for speeding, the officers
testified, he voluntarily consented to allow them to search his vehicle.

He was charged with possession of more than 10 pounds of "a mixture and
substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine."

But Black, who issued an order to suppress evidence in the case, said the
officers had no "objectively reasonable cause for stopping the defendant in
the first place."

They hadn't been able to use their radar to ascertain Alcala-Castro's speed
and "the odometer used to 'pace' the defendant was only calibrated for plus
or minus 2 miles per hour," Black noted.

Black also ruled that they had "neither reasonable suspicion nor probable
cause" to search his vehicle.

And because of language difficulties -- Alcala-Castro speaks little English
and the officers who arrested him spoke little Spanish -- they did not have
his "valid consent" to search the vehicle, Black ruled.

"The officers stopped defendant for the purpose of conducting a narcotics
investigation because he was an Hispanic male," Black wrote. "This
subsequent narcotics investigation would not have occurred but for the
defendant's race, and had no reasonable relation to the speeding ticket for
which defendant was initially stopped."

Alcala-Castro is still in federal custody in Santa Fe, Kennedy said. "Now
we're working to get him out." With evidence suppressed, he said, the state
will be unable to prosecute the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kotz, the prosecutor in the case, could
not be reached for comment Friday.