FEDERAL JUDGE REVERSES EASTON WOMAN'S DRUG CONVICTION

Her Jury Had Too Little Evidence To Find Her Guilty, Court Finds.

An Easton woman no longer faces five years in prison because a federal
judge has reversed her jury conviction, clearing her of drug distribution
charges.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter ruled that there was insufficient
evidence to prove that Pamela Joyce participated in a major Easton area
drug ring.

Judges rarely overturn jury verdicts because it's a jury's role - not a
judge's job - to decide the guilt or innocence of a defendant. When
verdicts are reversed, it's usually an appeals court concluding there were
legal errors in a trial.

But in this case, Buckwalter decided the jury had erred in convicting Joyce.

Joyce, 41, and three other defendants were convicted a year ago of
conspiring to sell crack cocaine and marijuana, much of it from the
Delaware Terrace public housing project in Easton. They were among 16
people accused of selling up to $4,000 worth of drugs a day, allegedly as
members of the Easton Bloods gang.

But in a ruling late last week, Buckwalter wrote, "Clearly, the only
involvement Joyce appears to have in this conspiracy is attempted purchases
of drugs."

Joyce acknowledged being a former drug user but denied selling drugs.

She took a risk by going to trial, instead of accepting a guilty plea deal
that would have reduced her potential sentence.

"From Day 1, she said she was going to trial because she was not guilty,"
said her lawyer, Regina Coyne of Philadelphia.

Joyce, who has been on bail for nearly two years, has turned her life
around, partly because of the drug case, Coyne said. "The whole thing
scared the heck out of her."

Joyce has been drug-free and raising a son in her Easton apartment, and
recently got a job promotion, according to Coyne.

After learning about the acquittal, Joyce told Coyne that the drug charges
might have had an unintended consequence by prompting her to reform herself.

"Maybe in the long run it was a good thing," she told her lawyer.

As required by law, Buckwalter, of Philadelphia, said he considered the
evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution.

He followed a 1999 opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia,
which outlined how to decide whether a defendant is a mere buyer who is not
distributing drugs. According to that opinion, factors that should be
considered include the length of affiliation between the defendant and the
conspirators, and the level of trust among alleged conspirators, such as
whether drugs were bought on credit.

In the same ruling, Buckwalter upheld the convictions of two other
defendants, John Miller of Easton and John Latourette of Phillipsburg.

During the trial in February 2001, the jury also convicted Angelo Carter,
in addition to Joyce, Miller and Latourette.

A mistrial was declared for Trisha Schweikert of Easton. She later pleaded
guilty.

Two weeks ago, Buckwalter gave Schweikert an 18-month prison sentence.
She's the only defendant to have been sentenced.

During the trial, the prosecution argued that the five defendants were
low-level figures in a ring that distributed crack and powder cocaine,
heroin, PCP and marijuana. Those on trial were linked only to the crack and
marijuana.

The ring operated from at least September 1998 to January 2000, earning
about $1 million.

Before the trial, 10 defendants pleaded guilty, including the leaders of
the drug ring.