COUNTS RESTORED IN DRUG CASE; RACIAL PROFILING WAS CHARGED

NEWARK, Jan. 28 - The New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated drug charges
today against a California woman who had persuaded two lower courts that
she was a victim of racial profiling when she was detained upon arrival at
Newark International Airport four years ago.

Racial profiling is a contentious issue in New Jersey, where state troopers
have a history of stopping drivers based on the color of their skin.
Prosecutors and civil rights lawyers were divided in assessing the
significance of today's ruling.

The woman, Felicia Stovall, was stopped and questioned at Newark Airport on
May 31, 1998, after an airline ticket agent in Los Angeles alerted federal
drug enforcement agents about two women boarding a plane for Newark. The
ticket agent suspected that they might be drug couriers because both held
tickets that had been purchased in bulk, they had only carry-on luggage,
and Ms. Stovall had a state identification card rather than a driver's
license. The ticket agent also described the women as possibly Hispanic.

In Newark, a drug agent stopped Ms. Stovall and noticed that her hands were
shaking and that her identification had expired. After a drug-sniffing dog
detected a scent, the police found 47 pounds of marijuana in her luggage.

Ms. Stovall's lawyers argued that the police needed more specific
information about drug possession, more than her method of buying tickets
and her ethnicity. Ms. Stovall is black, not Hispanic.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the charges, saying officers did not have
just cause to detain her, and an appeals court agreed.

Today, the state's highest court reversed those decisions, ruling 3 to 0
with two abstentions, saying "due weight" had to be given to the arresting
officer's experience. After 28 years in law enforcement, he might be able
to recognize a group of characteristics typical of a drug courier that
might seem innocuous when viewed individually or by a lay person, the court
said.

Robert Bonpietro, the deputy state attorney general who argued the appeal,
said the defense had argued that the ticket agent's description of Ms.
Stovall was inaccurate since he said she was Hispanic, but the agent also
said accurately that "she was wearing a red dress and had short hair," he
said. "They attempted to argue that there were no factual circumstances
that warranted the stop, and in doing so they were somewhat arguing that it
was a profile stop."

Ms. Stovall's lawyer, Joseph Charles, did not return several calls seeking
comment, but civil rights lawyers criticized today's decision as a step
backward in the effort to end racial profiling in the state.

The court's "blind faith" in officers to determine what is reasonable
suspicion — the threshold for detaining a suspect before arrest — invites
the perpetuation of racial stereotyping, said William H. Buckman, who has
represented many minority clients. He and others said officers who had
actually detained suspects based on race alone could then cite other traits
to justify the detention.