FORMER YOUTH COUNSELOR CONVICTED OF COCAINE POSSESSION

A man working as a youth drug counselor when he was caught carrying 8
ounces of cocaine in his pants pocket has been convicted.

Walter Dean Little had just rear-ended a tractor-trailer and totaled his
Ford Explorer when the paramedic found the drugs as he checked for
injuries, prosecutor Erik Lombillo told Collier County Circuit Court
jurors, who needed only about an hour to convict Little on Tuesday.

While Little, 43, 4034 E. Sunflower Circle, LaBelle, was originally charged
with cocaine trafficking, the jury found him guilty of simple cocaine
possession. He faces up to five years in prison instead of the seven-year
minimum mandatory sentence and $100,000 fine he could have received if
convicted of the more serious offense.

Little had been changing his clothes as he drove on State Road 29 South
near Immokalee on his way to work at Hendry Correctional Institution. He
was a substance abuse counselor for juveniles, his Naples attorney, Richard
Creel said.

Little worked at the prison through his employer, North American Family
Institute, according to the prosecutor and Little's jail booking sheet. The
Danvers, Mass.-based company was unavailable for comment Wednesday on
Little or his employment history there.

"He worked with kids who had been committed or had been (sentenced as
adults) and was dealing with them not only as a substance abuse counselor.
He had switched jobs where he was with them while they were doing physical
activities outside," Creel said.

Little had picked up some acquaintances earlier in the evening, Oct. 5,
2001, and Little's wife had seen one passenger fiddling with some clothes
Little had piled on the middle seat in the rear of the car, according to
trial testimony.

Creel said Little believes the man, whom he had met through friends, put
the packet of cocaine in the pocket of Little's pants before exiting the
automobile. Little had no criminal record and wasn't a drug user, Creel said.

Little dropped off the people in the car and headed for work. As he drove,
he changed clothes, and while struggling to slide on the pair of pants from
the back seat, his inattention to the roadway caused him to plow into the
rear of the huge truck.

Little was severely injured and knocked nonsensical by the impact, Creel
said. After placing Little on a back board, paramedic Mick Whitewood began
cutting off Little's pants to check for other injuries. Inside the pocket
was the nearly quarter kilogram of cocaine, according to testimony.

"It wasn't a huge amount of cocaine. You could have it in your pocket and
you'd know something was there but not know what it is," Creel said.

Little didn't remember the paramedic's discovery and was shocked to find an
arrest warrant for him five months later. He was arrested March 1, 2002,
after Florida Department of Law Enforcement technicians tested the
substance and proved it to be cocaine, Lombillo said.

His first trial, on Aug. 31, 2004, resulted in a hung jury. The second
trial, which lasted a day, ended in the guilty verdict. Creel said it was
odd because the trafficking charge was based on the weight of the drugs
found on Little, not on what he intended to do with it. So if the jurors
believed Little had drugs and knew they were there, it would have made more
sense to find Little guilty of the trafficking charge, Creel said.

"I don't know where they came up with possession (instead of trafficking
charge), but I'll take it considering what he was facing. I'd put it in the
victory column, but of course it's devastating to him," Creel said.

Creel tried to persuade jurors the cocaine wasn't Little's. Lombillo
concentrated on where the paramedic found the drugs.

"I couldn't rebut the defense theory very well but to say 'It was in his
pocket!' and argue that the defense only created possible doubts, but not
reasonable doubts," Lombillo said. "It was a hard-fought case."

No sentencing date has been set. Judge Lawrence D. Martin formally
convicted Little of the charge and ordered him held on no bond.