DRUG ARRESTS, PROSECUTIONS QUESTIONED

In a report that raises questions about how some drug cases are handled by
police and prosecutors, a Northeastern University study indicates that black
and other minority suspects were far more likely than whites to face stiffer
charges and longer prison terms, even when they had similar criminal records
or had similar roles in the crimes.

The study has been criticized by police and prosecutors as flawed and
misleading.

The study of 200 cases concluded that among defendants described in police
reports as "sellers," blacks were almost twice as likely as whites to be
charged with the more serious crime of drug dealing instead of simple drug
possession.

The study, whose findings are reported by the independent research group
Mass Inc. in the upcoming issue of Commonwealth magazine, echoes growing
national concern over the treatment of blacks, ethnic minorities, and the
poor in the criminal justice system.

And it focused attention on stiff laws against drug dealing in school
zones - laws that the study suggests have unfairly targeted minorities who
live in urban neighborhoods where schools sit side by side with homes and
parks.

"The numbers in there, the disparity between black and white, is terrible,"
said Mark Scott, director of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester.

But the study, which examined 200 defendants in drug cases from 1996 out of
Dorchester District Court, is under attack by police and prosecutors, who
yesterday dismissed the report as unscientific.

"The study is terribly flawed," said James Borghesani, a spokesman for
Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II. "The sample size of the
study is way too small."

The study examined drug cases in one of Boston's seven district courts, a
court whose defendants overwhelmingly are black.

"If there is a problem and people are being treated differently, we want to
address it," said Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans. "But we have
serious problems with the way the project was done in Dorchester."

Scott and other minority leaders yesterday were also cautioning against a
rush to judgment, saying they would wait for the findings of a much larger
study announced by law enforcement officials last week.

According to the Northeastern study, 52 percent of blacks and other
minorities arrested on cocaine charges were charged with distributing or
intending to distribute the drug; the same was true for only 15 percent of
whites.

When researchers took the role of the defendant into account, the
disparities persisted, according to the Commonwealth report. Of the minority
drug offenders described in police reports as "seller," 93 percent were
charged with dealing.

But only 50 percent of white defendants described in the same way in police
reports were charged with dealing.

Sentencing on cocaine possession can vary widely from probation to some jail
time, depending on a defendant's prior record and the amount of drugs
recovered. But a charge of distribution, or intent to distribute within a
school zone, requires a mandatory minimum of two years in prison.

After factoring in defendants' past criminal records, the researchers still
found disparities. Comparing 36 blacks and 36 whites who had no prior drug
arrests, 21 minorities were charged with distribution, as opposed to five
whites.

And where 83 percent of whites with one or more past drug arrests were
charged with simple possession, only 54 percent of blacks with similar
backgrounds faced the lesser charge.

Examining the amount of drugs found in the different cases, researchers
found that only 26 percent of whites who had at least 1.5 grams of cocaine
were charged with drug dealing, while 94 percent of minorites arrested with
similar amounts were charged with drug distribution.

The distinction between mere possession and distribution or intent to
distribute is a crucial one, the report said. Once defendants are charged
with distributing, they become candidates for the school-zone charges if
they were near a school.

The primary researchers of the study, Deborah Ramirez and Jack McDevitt,
both professors at Northeastern University, were unavailable for comment
yesterday. In the Mass Inc. report, both said that it was too early to
conclude what the numbers meant.

Both police and prosecutors have called the findings misleading.

Assistant District Attorney Andrea Cabral argued that the amount of drugs
confiscated can be interpreted in different ways. A known drug addict could
be arrested with a large stash and still face only possession charges;
another suspect caught with a small bag could be charged with dealing if the
drugs were packaged for a sale.

Last week, Boston police, prosecutors, and minority leaders announced the
start of the broader study.

The effort follows a report from the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission
that looked at more than 800 suspects convicted last year of drug offenses
that carried a mandatory minimum sentence. Of all the cases, 19 percent of
those convicted were were white, while 81 percent were minorities.