Source: Times Union (NY)
Copyright: 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact: tuletters@timesunion.com
Address: Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212
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Author: Lara Jakes, Capitol Bureau

DRUG DEALER ADMITS CRIME, BUT ARGUES SENTENCE IS TOO LONG

GEORGETOWN -- Growing up in Scotia, Lester Crandall was never into
drugs. He came from a family of outdoorsmen who liked hunting, fishing
and drinking.

It was alcoholism, he says, that distorted his judgment in 1983,
leading him to sell a few grams of cocaine at a time to a bar
acquaintance. His customer turned out to be an undercover state trooper.

Now 54, Crandall is in his 16th year in prison for six drug sales he
made over a two-week span. While he does not deny his guilt, Crandall
believes he was caught in a system bent on getting even small-time
dealers behind bars for long periods of time.

"I was wrong -- I accept responsibility for my actions,'' said
Crandall, an intense, graying man. "But I think I've served enough
time. I think the laws destroy a person, and a family as well.''

Crandall, however, already had a hefty criminal record and had spent
time in county jails and federal prison on assaults and weapons
possession charges before he befriended another regular at a
Schenectady biker bar in 1983. The man wanted to know if Crandall
could get him some cocaine. Crandall said he wasn't a regular dealer,
but he came through with the coke.

Crandall met the man at bars and other meeting places five times in
Schenectady County and once at a Thruway Exit 25 pull-over area in
Albany County to sell the powder.

The undercover cop turned the evidence over to an Albany County grand
jury, which indicted Crandall on B-felony drug sale and possession
charges. After going through three attorneys, Crandall still insisted
on taking his case to a jury. "The case was very weak,'' he said. "I
thought I had a chance at trial.''

He was wrong: An Albany County jury convicted Crandall of multiple
counts of sale and possession of cocaine, and Judge John Clyne
sentenced the felon to a term of 15 to 30 years in prison under the
Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Since October, Crandall has been living at Camp Georgetown, a
minimum-security facility that looks more like a Boy Scout post than a
prison. There are no high walls, no barbed wire fences, no barking
dogs at the honor-system facility in Madison County.

The relative niceties are of little comfort to Crandall, who grows
slightly teary talking about his estrangement from his four children,
aged 17 to 31. "Once I get out of here and do good, maybe the family
will be reunited. And I will do good -- I will never come back to this
system,'' Crandall said.