Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jan 2000
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2000, Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Fax: (516)843-2986
Website: http://www.newsday.com/
Author: Associated Press

APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS CONVICTION OF WOMAN IN CONTROVERSIAL DRUG

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld the
conviction of a Detroit woman whose case generated a national furor
when a judge first threw out the evidence against her then changed his
mind after criticism from the White House.

In ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District
Judge Harold Baer Jr. did not error by refusing to recuse himself from
the case or by changing his mind and restoring evidence against Carol
Bayless after the controversy erupted.

But the court also said it did not decide the most difficult
issues.

"We do not determine when, if ever, criticism of an unpopular decision
becomes so severe as to constitute grounds for recusal of the judge
who made that decision," it wrote.

The case stemmed from the April 21, 1995 arrest of Mrs. Bayless, 44,
in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

She was arrested after police stopped her rental car and found $4
million in drugs, including 75 pounds of cocaine and 4 1/2 pounds of
heroin.

Baer, appointed for life in 1994 by President Clinton, sparked a
national debate when he tossed out the evidence, finding that police
in Washington Heights had arrested Mrs. Bayless improperly.

Baer said it was not unusual for civilians to flee police in a
community damaged by police corruption. He added, "What I find
shattering is that in this day and age blacks in black neighborhoods
and blacks in white neighborhoods can count on little security for
their person."

Then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other House Republicans called on
Clinton to seek Baer's resignation.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry called the ruling "wrongheaded" and
said Clinton could ask for Baer's resignation. Later, the White House
retreated, saying it supported an independent judiciary.

Amidst the uproar, four senior judges for the appeals court in
Manhattan even took the unusual step of writing a statement saying the
idea of removing Baer "threaten to weaken the constitutional structure
of this nation."

At the request of federal prosecutors, Baer then held an unusual
second hearing on the admissibility of the evidence in the case and
reversed himself, saying police acted properly.

After the ruling against Mrs. Bayless, her lawyers said Baer should
have withdrawn from the case because of the political pressure.

On Wednesday, the appeals court said Baer was "forced to decide
whether to disqualify himself when doing so could readily have been
perceived as a capitulation to political pressure - a capitulation,
moreover, that might well have encouraged such pressure on judges in
the future."

The appeals court said it was also proper of Baer to uphold the
arrest, finding that the men who loaded the defendant's car with drugs
acted oddly, behavior which "makes factors such as the high-crime
neighborhood and flight more significant."

Mrs. Bayless is now free after serving a 4 1/2 year prison sentence.
She pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other drug charges.

A lawyer for her did not immediately return a phone message for
comment on Wednesday.