DORISMOND'S FAMILY NUMBED BY DECISION

In an emotionally charged news conference, the mother of Patrick Dorismond
called yesterday on President Bill Clinton to find justice for a son she
said was killed because "he said no to drugs." "Dear President Clinton, I
address you as a black woman," Marie Dorismond said after a Manhattan grand
jury declined to indict a detective who fatally shot her son. "My son said
no to drugs and now where is he? A cop killed him because he said no to
drugs." The Rev. Al Sharpton, clearly aiming at first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton, followed up by "calling on the candidates for the U.S. Senate race
to take a position" on the grand jury's decision.

"What position they take," he said, "will determine how and on what level we
will support them." Family members described themselves as numbed by the
decision, in which the grand jury declined to indict an undercover detective
who fatally shot Patrick Dorismond, 26, in a scuffle in midtown Manhattan on
March 16.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the evidence showed that
when the detective approached Dorismond to attempt to buy narcotics,
Dorismond, who was not selling drugs, "lost his temper, and he hit someone."
Dorismond never realized he was confronting police officers, the prosecutor
said.

Sharpton said the decision was "the epitome of an insult to the intelligence
of the people of this nation." Referring to former Chief Judge Sol
Wachtler's quote that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich, Sharpton
said, "It seems like a ham sandwich has more likelihood of being indicted in
Manhattan county than a New York City police [officer]." He said the federal
government had to get involved "so we would not be playing with the politics
of local DAs." In a statement, Morgenthau said that the grand jury "is not a
forum for the expression of political views or the resolution of policy
disputes. To allow it to be used for those purposes would simply layer an
injustice upon a tragedy."