1 OF 2 SISTERS RULED COMPETENT FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING TRIAL

A 49-year-old woman with developmental disabilities whose drug
trafficking case has been sidetracked for four months because experts
said she wasn't mentally fit to stand trial was deemed competent on
Friday to proceed with her case.

But while Circuit Judge Kitty K. Brennan cleared the way for Rose Day
to stand trial on charges that she ran a crack house, the judge
concluded that Day's 52-year-old sister is not mentally fit and
ordered the case against her suspended indefinitely.

As Brennan was beginning to outline her decision concerning Annie B.
Day, the woman had to be awakened by her attorney.

"I'm ruling in your case Ms. Day," Brennan told Annie Day, who had
fallen asleep at the defense table. "Try to stay awake."

While both sisters are mentally disabled, according to Brennan, Annie
Day is more so and is unable to adequately help her attorney or
understand what is taking place in court.

Her sister, on the other hand, Brennan said, is able to help her
lawyer "if she wants to."

"I find that Rose Day was deliberately trying to withhold information
from all of the doctors to portray herself as more impaired than she
is," Brennan said, evoking no visible response from Rose Day.

Brennan made her finding despite the unanimous conclusions of two
psychiatrists and one psychologist who said that both women were not
and never would be mentally fit for trial.

A key factor in Brennan's rulings concerning the women was testimony
from an informant who started the case against them by making a series
of cocaine deals at their home.

Circuit Court records indicate that narcotics agents from the state
Justice Department targeted the duplex in the 2100 block of N. 38th
St. where the Days live for undercover drug buys beginning in December.

A search warrant was obtained April 13. In Annie Day's bedroom,
authorities contend, police found 17 rocks of crack.

The experts concluded that the women were incompetent and would remain
so.

Assistant District Attorney Steven H. Glamm objected to the experts'
conclusions.

"She understood what he (the informant) meant by an eight-ball of
cocaine," Brennan noted. "She was able to put a transaction together
in a very short period of time."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady