SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS SEARCH AND DRUG CONVICTION AGAIN

MADISON, Wis. - The state Supreme Court upheld a man's conviction for drug
possession for the second time Tuesday, ruling that a tip from an anonymous
911 call was enough reason to stop him and search his car.

The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the state's highest court last
April, ordering the court to review the case of Roosevelt Williams again in
light of two recent decisions regarding police searches. In one of those
decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court sharply curtailed police power to rely on
anonymous tips to stop and search people.

The state Supreme Court split 4-3 on Williams' case, the same way it did in
April 1999, when it upheld the search and his conviction the first time.

Williams was arrested in November 1995, after police were notified of a 911
call in which a woman told authorities that a person was selling drugs from
a blue and burgundy Ford Bronco.

The officers found a blue and burgundy Chevrolet Blazer in the area. A man,
later identified as Williams, was sitting in the driver's seat and a woman
was in the passenger's seat.

Police said Williams' right hand was out of view behind the passenger's
seat. Fearing that he was holding a gun, the officers drew their weapons
and put Williams and the woman in the squad car. The officers searched the
Blazer and said they found marijuana and 26 rocks of crack cocaine.

"The officers were reasonable in fearing for their safety and executed a
limited search of the vehicle to quell that fear," Justice Patrick Crooks
wrote for the majority.

Williams was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He
tried to get the court to suppress the evidence, arguing that the police
searched him based on the anonymous tip without taking any steps to
investigate.

"The more reliable the information in the call is, the less the police need
to do on the scene," said assistant attorney general Warren Weinstein, who
argued for the state. More unreliable callers still can provide some
information police can use to investigate, he said.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Maxine White denied the motion, and Williams
was found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison before the appeals
court reversed the decision. The Supreme Court reinstated the guilty
verdict for the second time Tuesday.

But in his dissent, Justice William Bablitch, joined by Chief Justice
Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, said the facts of the
case did not permit a constitutional stop or search.

"For all we can tell from the record, her allegation of criminal wrongdoing
is based upon nothing more than 'idle rumor or irresponsible conjecture,' "
Bablitch wrote, referring to the woman who made the 911 call.

Williams' attorney, assistant state public defender Melinda Swartz, said
she was considering petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court again to review the
state court's decision.