DRUG-DEALING MATRIARCH RECEIVES 65-YEAR PRISON TERM

A woman who ran a large cocaine ring with her two sisters, a brother and
three daughters was sentenced Tuesday to 65 years in prison, to be followed
by 25 years of probation.

Nancy K. Ezell, long a notorious figure in local narcotics trafficking,
carefully called the shots from the background as others took the chances,
including a daughter who wound up with a 45-year prison term for acting as
the ring's lead negotiator.

After she was arrested, Ezell, convicted three previous times for drug
trafficking, insisted she had been used by her children.

But Circuit Judge Timothy G. Dugan agreed with a prosecutor that Ezell, 47,
was the ringleader.

"You were evil as far as the community is concerned because you were selling
for profit," Dugan told Ezell.

Ezell's sentencing came more than 10 months after she pleaded guilty to
seven drug trafficking counts and one count of receiving stolen property.
Her sentencing was delayed for months because she fired two attorneys,
underwent five angioplasties and open heart surgery and tried unsuccessfully
to withdraw her guilty plea.

"She's been afraid of this day for a long time," her attorney, Curt Rogers,
told Dugan.

Ezell, a controversial figure in a 1987 John Doe investigation into drug use
among police officers, was sentenced as the central figure in a crack
business that included a fencing operation for stolen goods. It came after a
four-month inquiry during which she and her relatives made a series of crack
and powder cocaine sales to undercover police officers.

At times, drug or stolen goods transactions were delayed or postponed
because her daughters could not waken a deep-sleeping Ezell to complete the
deals or arrange the narcotics deliveries, records indicate.

The criminal complaint says that for one of the many crack deals, Ezell's
3-year-old granddaughter accompanied her mother. During another deal,
Ezell's 12-year-old nephew looked on as cocaine was being poured onto a
scale. During the weighing, the nephew allegedly announced, "Some of this is
mine."

It wasn't until several weeks and several drug transactions into the sting
operation that undercover officers got to meet Ezell face to face. Before
that, they dealt with her sisters, daughters and acquaintances.

Ezell also eventually finalized the stolen goods transactions, expressing a
keen interest in hot televisions, videocassette recorders and video cameras.

Ezell is the ninth person in the 10-defendant case to go to prison.

Nicole Ezell, 25, received a 45-year prison term and another daughter,
Shelonda, 19, received a five-year term. A third daughter, Sheronda, also
19, still is being sought on an arrest warrant.

"I think the phrase that best sums up the defendant's character is 'user, "
Assistant District Attorney Patrick J. Kenney told Dugan on Tuesday. "She
uses people. She did not want to deal with anyone. That is why she used
other people."

Kenney noted that Ezell's former home in the 3700 block of N. 6th St. was
the target of seven search warrants dating to 1995.

"Every time the Police Department executed warrants it was difficult to make
a case because there was a large number of people present, including
children," Kenney said of the residence he termed "a notorious drug house.
Proving ownership of the drugs that were found was impossible."

The house was finally ordered vacated after the city filed a civil lawsuit.
Ezell then moved to a home in the 8000 block of W. Sheridan Ave., where
police concluded their undercover investigation, leading to the charges in
April 1998.

Ezell declined to make a statement before she was sentenced Tuesday.

Before handing down the sentence and $7,000 in fines, Dugan termed Ezell's
crimes "extremely aggravated" and her livelihood "a large drug operation."

"Sadly," Dugan told her, "it's destroyed your family."