OFFICERS TESTIFY IN HEARING THAT 'SOPRANOS' ACTOR HAD MARIJUANA AND PIPE

Robert Iler, the 17-year-old actor who plays the troubled son of a mobster
on the television series "The Sopranos," had a hot pipe and marijuana on
him when police officers searched him in a robbery investigation last July,
one of the officers testified yesterday.

Mr. Iler is charged with second-degree robbery along with Michael Cournede,
20, and Alban Selimaj, 17, for taking $40 by force from two 16-year-olds
outside an Upper East Side delicatessen early in the morning on July 4 last
year, according to the authorities. Mr. Iler pleaded not guilty at his
arraignment and was released on $2,500 bail.

At a pretrial hearing yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan,
Officers Brian O'Donnell and Brendan Johnson, both of the 19th Precinct,
detailed how they had found and apprehended Mr. Iler, Mr. Cournede, Mr.
Selimaj, a girl who was later released, and a 15-year-old boy whose case is
being handled by Family Court because he is a juvenile.

Officer O'Donnell testified that he responded to a radio call about a
robbery in progress and found four young men and a young woman, some of
whom he believed fit partial descriptions of those who committed the crime,
sitting on a bench in John Jay Park on the Upper East Side. He said he
asked them what they were doing and testified that they responded, "We're
just hanging out smoking cigarettes." He testified that they said they had
come from 73rd Street and York Avenue, one block from the robbery.

Officer O'Donnell said he frisked Mr. Cournede for his own safety and found
a box cutter in his left pocket. He then frisked Mr. Iler and felt
something in his pocket. Officer O'Donnell testified that it was a
marijuana pipe, still hot. He also found a bag of marijuana.

Officer Johnson testified that he later checked Mr. Cournede's pockets, and
found $61. He testified that he asked how much money Mr. Cournede had on
him, and that Mr. Cournede said he had $41.

The officers testified that the young men had not been arrested at the time
of the frisks, nor were they handcuffed after being frisked. One officer
said he did not think they posed much danger.

Lawyers for the defense contend that the young men were searched without
proper cause, and followed that line of questioning in their
cross-examination before Justice Daniel FitzGerald. The purpose of the
pretrial hearing was to determine what evidence would be allowed in the trial.

Officer O'Donnell also testified that after a patrol car arrived with the
victims of the robbery, they identified the young men in the park as the
robbers.

Mr. Iler's trial is scheduled to begin May 6.