DRUG FOES OUTRAGED BY RULING

NEW BEDFORD -- Prosecutors, law enforcement officers and North End residents
are outraged that a man who pleaded guilty to selling significant quantities
of drugs will spend no time in jail.

"He got less than a slap on the wrist -- it doesn't sound right," said Roger
Quintin, a member of the Bullard Street Neighborhood Association who lives
near the Tinkham Street building where Raymond A. Gadbois was twice arrested
by narcotics detectives.

"It's just so far out it doesn't make any sense. Maybe this judge knows
something we don't, that's the only thing I can think of, otherwise this guy
shouldn't have walked."

District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said he was "not happy" with the judge's
decision to sentence Mr. Gadbois to a two-year suspended term.

"This guy belongs in jail," Mr. Walsh said.

"You've got a serious societal problem and you look at this case, he's got a
huge amount of drugs, a gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and
thousands of dollars -- I think this is the best advertisement in the world
for minimum mandatory sentences. If the courts can't deal with them, then
the prosecutors can."

District attorneys decide what charges to proceed with, and could therefore
choose charges with mandatory minimum sentences if they decided they best
fit the crime, Mr. Walsh said.

"Who should be in control of that situation are those most answerable to the
public," Mr. Walsh said. "My job goes out to bid every four years -- a judge
sits for life."

Mr. Gadbois, 25, was arrested Nov. 14, 1997, at his home. Police found 20
pounds of marijuana, 25 Percocets, a box of steroids, a pound of magic
mushrooms, a .380-caliber handgun, two 100-round boxes of ammunition, drug
paraphernalia, and $1,602 in cash.

While on bail awaiting trial, he was arrested at his home again on Jan. 26,
1998. Police found 37 bags of heroin, three bags of marijuana, three
Percocets, one Xanax, drug paraphernalia and $2,000 cash.

The man could have been facing more than 15 years in prison if given the
maximum for every count against him. Assistant District Attorney Matthew
Burke Jr. recommended two years behind bars.

But after Mr. Gadbois pleaded guilty to all charges Thursday, New Bedford
District Court Judge Bernadette Sabra sentenced Mr. Gadbois to a two-year
suspended sentence, with counseling, random urine sampling, forfeiture of
the money, and destruction of the gun, ammunition and drugs.

Judge Sabra would not comment on her decision.

While there are minimum mandatory sentences on the books, Mr. Gadbois did
not fall into any of the categories.

Had his gun been confiscated outside his home, he would have faced a
mandatory one-year minimum.

If he had been dealing drugs in a school zone -- which most of New Bedford
qualifies as -- there is a two-year mandatory minimum.

With a little more than twice as much marijuana, there would have been a
mandatory minimum one-year sentence, and with four times the heroin, a
mandatory five years.

"I think it's an anomaly," Mr. Walsh said. "He wasn't in a school zone, kept
under the radar screen for amounts, the gun was in the house -- good lawyer,
right circumstances, right day -- the constellations were moving in his
direction."

Lt. Mel Wotton, who heads the New Bedford Police Department Narcotics Unit,
said he, too, thought the Gadbois case a rarity.

"From the law enforcement side, we don't expect everyone to go to jail,
that's unrealistic," Lt. Wotton said. "But we do expect the drug dealers who
deal constantly to go to jail."

When sentences like Mr. Gadbois' are meted out they hurt police morale, Lt.
Wotton said.

"These guys were bothered by it, but they were out making arrests in the
afternoon," Lt. Wotton said. "When you see them walk out and laugh at you,
it bothers you, but is it going to change the way we work? No."