DRUG DEALER WHO PARALYZED OFFICER RECEIVES LIFE SENTENCE

A drug dealer who wounded and partially paralyzed an undercover Houston
police officer during a 1998 gunfight was sentenced Monday to life in prison
and fined $10,000.

The jury took about five minutes to decide on the maximum punishment for
Robert Demond Lavern, 18, who must serve at least 30 years before he is
eligible for parole. State District Judge Elsa Alcala imposed the sentence,
after Lavern's conviction for aggravated assault on a public servant conviction.

"It's the most he could have gotten and so I'm very pleased," prosecutor
Casey O'Brien said later. "I'm elated. It's justice."

The sentence assessed Monday for the Feb. 4, 1998, shooting of Officer Vonda
Higgins will run concurrently with a 24-year term assessed by another jury
in December after Lavern was convicted of the same charge for firing at
Higgins' partner, Ralph Chaison, during the same exchange.

Because that sentence meant Lavern would only have to serve 12 years before
being parole-eligible, prosecutors pursued the second charge against him.

The gunfight occurred outside a West Branch apartment complex. Chaison and
Higgins, both working undercover, were buying drugs from dealers in the
area, including Lavern.

When Chaison refused Lavern's order to put some crack cocaine in his mouth
to prove he wasn't "the law," Lavern pulled a pistol.

Chaison drew and fired, wounding Lavern. As Higgins got out of the truck to
help her exposed partner, she was shot in the neck. The round lodged near
her spine and she now has only limited movement in her upper body.

Defense attorney Jeff Hale argued that his client didn't know the pair were
police officers.