MAJOR DRUG DEALER GETS 28-YEAR TERM

Flowers gives warning to youngsters in Oakland to avoid his rocky path

As Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and neighborhood residents watched, Anthony
Flowers, for years one of the city's biggest crack cocaine dealers, was
sentenced yesterday to 28 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush pronounced the sentence at the end of
a tension-filled hearing that included an angry outburst by Flowers' wife
directed at Brown.

The sentence was shorter than the 30 years recommended by federal
prosecutors, who tried to convince Quackenbush that Flowers was a drug
kingpin, an organizer of a large-scale gang operation involved in the
trafficking of cocaine.

Law enforcement officials, who nabbed Flowers in 1994 after an extensive
wiretap investigation, claim that Flowers was the last of a line of kingpins
dating back to Felix Mitchell, Oakland's first major drug lord.

But after hearing the arguments of Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy,
Quackenbush ruled that Flowers had been ``involved in ongoing and extensive
drug dealing from 1988 (to 1994)'' but was not `'an organizer or a leader''
of a drug gang.

Still, Brown, City Manager Robert Bobb, and more than two dozen Oakland
residents, who packed the courtroom with the hopes of sending a message to
Quackenbush that they wanted Flowers put away for a long time, called the
sentence a victory.

``Twenty-eight years is a powerful message,'' Brown said at a news
conference after the hearing. ``It's an incredible verdict.''

The hearing drew different factions of the same East Oakland community
together in pain, fear and anger.

On one side of the courtroom, Brown sat surrounded by residents of the
flatland neighborhoods that have crumbled under the assault of drugs.

Across from them sat Flowers' anguished family and friends, some of whom
sobbed aloud as he was sentenced. They included his two young daughters,
dressed in matching purple sweaters, their hair in pigtails.

The courtroom erupted during a recess when Flowers' wife, Barbara,
confronted Brown. Flowers' supporters said they resented that Brown had used
the sentencing to make a statement about Oakland's intolerance for drug
dealers.

``This is his life, you don't know how we feel,'' she said, her voice rising
and tears streaming down her face as she stood inches from Brown, who
remained silent. ``I have to tell my children, `Jerry Brown made sure your
father can never come home to see his children.' ''

Throughout the hearing, Flowers, dressed in red prison garb and blue
slippers, sat impassively as his attorney, Maureen Kallins, and prosector
Kennedy argued back and forth about how much time in prison he should
receive.

When asked whether he had anything to say before being sentenced, the
square-jawed, stocky man stood and announced that although he did not think
he had received a fair trial because of ``misrepresentations and slander,''
he was sorry for his crimes.

``I'm not proud of some of the things I've chosen to do in my life,'' he
said. ``I'm sorry I have to put myself in this position, my family and my
loved ones.''

He spoke of how he had been raised by a mother who on her own did her best
to provide for her family, to ``make sure we had clean clothes.''

But the ``temptations were overwhelming,'' he said. He warned other young
men growing up in Oakland's flatlands to sidestep the path he followed. He
said he worries about his children growing up without a father.

Then he asked the court to have ``mercy and compassion'' for him and his
family.

As the judge pronounced the sentence, which was structured to adhere to
federal sentencing guidelines, Quackenbush told Flowers, ``The
responsibility for your being here today is your own. A lot of other
people's lives have been destroyed by your actions.''

Flowers' trial, which led to his conviction on numerous conspiracy and
distribution charges, was fraught with difficulties. Quackenbush declared a
mistrial after finding that there had been juror misconduct. An appellate
court later reinstated the charges.

Quackenbush also dismissed racketeering charges against Flowers after
finding that then-U.S. attorney Michael Yamaguchi made inappropriate
comments to a Chronicle reporter during the 1996 trial. The controversy cost
Yamaguchi his nomination for a federal judgeship.