COURT UPHOLDS AIRPORT RACIAL PROFILE RULING

A Port Authority police officer working with federal drug agents at Newark
International Airport illegally detained a black airline passenger based on
a hunch and a "profile," an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling has similarities to the so-called racial profiling controversy
that dogged the state police for the past year. But a spokesman for the Drug
Enforcement Administration said the case has nothing to do with race.

This is the second case in recent months in which law enforcement officials
at Newark Airport were alleged to have targeted minority passengers. In a
well-publicized case, a Manhattan woman charged in a November lawsuit that
Customs agents there subjected her to an invasive, humiliating body search
for drugs only because she is black.

Tuesday's case involves an incident in May 1998, when a DEA agent tipped off
officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that two female
passengers traveling to Newark from Los Angeles appeared suspicious and
could be carrying drugs, according to court records. The DEA agent described
the women as "possibly Hispanic," traveling under false names, and wearing
business suits.

Officer Charles Benoit of the Port Authority approached one of the women,
Felicia Stovall, and asked if she would consent to a search. She said no,
but Benoit asked if she would wait a moment -- while a drug-sniffing dog was
brought to the scene. Stovall is African-American, not Hispanic.

Benoit eventually found 47 pounds of marijuana in Stovall's bags, and she
was arrested.

But a trial judge suppressed the marijuana as evidence in the case, saying
Benoit had no reasonable suspicion to hold Stovall. Under New Jersey law,
police can approach a citizen and question him superficially, but cannot
hold him against his will, or even suggest he is not free to go, unless the
officer has some reasonable basis for suspicion.

The appeals court upheld the trial judge's findings, and quoted extensively
from her decision.

"All we have here is a suspicion which is very much akin to a profile type
stop," wrote Judge Miriam Span, a Superior Court judge in Union County, in
her earlier decision.

Span said it was not enough for DEA agents and then Benoit to single out
Stovall because in all respects she was a typical traveler. Span also
questioned why the DEA described her as Hispanic, when she clearly was not
of that ethnic background. Span also said the DEA provided no evidence that
Stovall was traveling under a false name.

During the racial profiling controversy that beset state police, the
Attorney General's Office said some troopers intentionally misidentified a
motorist's race in patrol reports in order to mask the fact they were
targeting minorities.

But Anthony Senneca, special agent for the DEA in the Newark office, said
agency personnel were not trying to hide anything. They merely were trying
to describe an airline passenger to Benoit. He also questioned Judge Span's
use of the word "profile" in the case.

Senneca said the DEA alerts and trains local police officers such as Benoit
to look for typical criminal characteristics: methods of concealing drugs,
recent transportation routes, and other factors, but police are never
instructed to look for certain types of people.

DEA agents suspected Stovall and the second woman because they used false
identification, not because they were minorities, Senneca said.

"When someone is traveling coast to coast on an airline and you are of the
belief that person is traveling under false identification, most reasonable
people would wonder why," Senneca said.

The DEA and Benoit made the mistake of not documenting the false
identification before detaining Stovall, Senneca said.

Stovall's attorney could not be reached for comment. The Port Authority
declined to comment.