CROWN LETS DEALER WALK

Racial-Profiling Case Aids Him

AN ADMITTED drug dealer strolled away from superior court a free man
yesterday as the latest winner following a landmark racial-profiling
decision last month. "I feel like a ton of bricks has been lifted from my
shoulders," Sheldon Jackson said after the Crown attorney decided not to
prosecute drug dealing charges against the 28-year-old Toronto man.

Jackson, who was driving a new 750 BMW in 2001 on St. Clair Ave. W., said
he felt "like I was pulled over because I was 'driving while black.'

"I knew my rights were violated -- the police attacked me for no reason,"
Jackson said.

SAME OFFICER

The investigating officer was Det. Glenn Asselin, the same policeman named
in the Kevin Khan case, considered the first racial-profiling decision of
its kind.

Khan, 26, and a real estate broker, was acquitted last month of a
drug-trafficking charge when Justice Anne Molloy said Asselin and his
partner "fabricated significant aspects of their evidence" when they pulled
him over on Marlee Ave. One kilo of cocaine with a street value of $100,000
was found in his vehicle on Oct. 22, 2001, but the judge excluded the evidence.

DRIVERS CALLED TARGETS

Lawyer John Struthers, who represents both Khan and Jackson, said both men
were targeted as young blacks driving expensive cars and the illegal stops
violated their rights.

"Khan was the first case of 'driving while black' in Canadian history I'm
aware of where a young black man is targeted for his appearance," Struthers
said.

In a 2001 preliminary hearing, Asselin testified he pulled over Jackson and
said, "it was as if I caught my daughter with her hand in the cookie jar ..
Jackson's eyes bulged out and the whipping of his head -- that (indicated)
he was up to something he didn't want us to see."