Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2001
Source: Munster Times (IN)
Copyright: 2001 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.thetimesonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: William Lazarus

SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS, OUT IN 2

Deal approved by Lake County prosecutor apparently flouted Indiana law

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter approved an agreement in late 1999 
that led to a major drug dealer being let out of prison in apparent 
violation of state law.

Viron Lamarr Lewis, the son of a prominent Gary criminal defense attorney, 
was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. He was out in less than two.

Under Indiana law on modification of sentences, he should have been 
required to serve at least six years, although good time credit could have 
reduced that to three years.

Carter admitted that he agreed to Lewis' petition for sentence 
modification, but he could not explain why he did so. He insisted he would 
have paid no attention to the generous political contributions made to 
Carter's campaign committee earlier in 1999 by Lewis' father.

As to the sentence modification itself being illegal, Carter suggested that 
prison authorities should have spotted the problem and not released Lewis, 
despite the judge's order to do so immediately.

"When the court tells us to do something, we do it," said Sharon Hawk, 
administrative assistant to the superintendent of the state prison at 
Westville.

Lake County Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray, who could not be reached 
for comment, approved the "agreed order" which Carter said he authorized. 
It is routine for judges to approve orders that have been agreed to by both 
sides in a case.

BIG BUYS

Viron Lewis was what might be called a drug dealer's drug dealer.

On each of three days in November 1997, an informant working with the Lake 
County Drug Task Force purchased more than 28 grams of cocaine from Lewis 
for $1,100. The next month and in January 1998, police informants made 
three more buys from Lewis at his Gary home at 222 Porter St., at prices 
ranging from $250 to $500, according to the police probable cause affidavit.

Dealing in just 3 grams of cocaine is a Class A felony in Indiana 
punishable by a minimum 20-year prison sentence.

Lewis' six alleged sales involved about 120 grams. Upon executing a search 
warrant at Lewis' home, police seized more than a half kilogram, or over a 
pound, of cocaine.

Lewis was charged with committing a Class A felony. He pled to a Class B, 
which provides for a prison term ranging from six to 20 years.

Carter recalled that Lewis sought to plead to a Class C felony, punishable 
by a two-to eight-year prison sentence. But Carter said that, based on the 
seriousness of the police allegations, he insisted that it be a Class B plea.

As part of the deal, Lewis admitted he possessed, with intent to deliver, 
549 grams of cocaine at his house on Jan. 12, 1998, along with more than 
$13,000 cash and a digital scale to measure cocaine.

A gram of cocaine is often divided into 10 hits, selling for $10 apiece.

SENTENCE STIFFED

Citing Lewis' "dishonest, manipulative" character, the "high" risk that he 
will commit another crime, and his prior criminal record for marijuana 
possession and drug abuse, Lake County Superior Court Judge James E. 
Letsinger on Aug. 10, 1998, added two years to the standard 10-year 
sentence for a Class B felony.

The judge gave 207 days credit for the time Lewis already spent in Lake 
County Jail since his arrest in January of that year.

Early in 1999, Letsinger retired from the bench.

On Nov. 24, 1999, Lewis' attorney, Noah Holcomb, petitioned for his 
client's release from prison.

Lewis, he argued, had "soberly learned a lesson from his lengthy 
incarceration" and would be "unlikely to commit another crime" given his 
"present attitude, character and conduct."

Holcomb incorrectly claimed in the petition that Lewis "has served more 
than three years" of the 12-year sentence.

A month later, an "agreed order" signed by Holcomb and Christopher 
McQuillin, then drug unit supervisor in the prosecutor's office, 
incorrectly claimed that Lewis "has served almost three years" of his sentence.

In fact, Lewis' total time behind bars on his drug dealing conviction 
amounted to 22 months.

The signed agreed order sought to modify Lewis' sentence to time served. 
Such agreed orders are regularly approved by judges, and that's what judge 
Murray did on Dec. 15, 1999.

Prison records show Lewis was released five days later.

MIXED RECORD

On Jan. 4, prison authorities sent a "progress report" on Lewis to Murray. 
It showed a mixed record.

In 1998, he was sanctioned for "attempting to traffic" which, in prison, 
means giving or receiving of any type of goods against the rules. He also 
was cited for "refusing to obey an order." Prison authorities said they 
cannot make the details of the transgressions public.

On prison jobs, Lewis received one "outstanding" and one "average" 
evaluation. He completed classes on anger management, lifestyle change and 
substance abuse.

"I make no recommendations as to a prognosis for Offender Lewis," concluded 
corrections counselor Martha Black in her letter to the judge.

Criminal defense attorney Robert L. Lewis, the father of Viron Lewis, said 
he had worked on the case along with Holcomb. Court records show that the 
agreed order signed by Holcomb and prosecutor McQuillin was faxed from 
Lewis' law office.

"It could have been a typo," said Lewis when asked about the order's claim 
that Viron Lewis already had served nearly three years. He later said he 
really had believed his son had served three years.

Holcomb agreed that it must have been a simple mistake. As to the Indiana 
law that restricts sentence modifications to no less than the minimum 
six-year sentence in Class B felonies involving more than three grams of 
cocaine, Holcomb said the prosecutors and defense lawyers alike must have 
just forgotten about the statute.

"Nobody tried to pull the wool over anybody's eyes," he said, adding that 
when that happens among lawyers, "word gets out pretty fast that you are 
trying to engage in what's commonly known as sharp practice. So people 
watch you like a hawk."

SHOCK PROBATION

Robert Lewis said it was just for his son to be released from prison early 
since "he was an exemplary inmate ... He hasn't gotten into any trouble 
since he was released ... I think the court was wise in doing what it did, 
because he's not now a burden on the taxpayer and he's self-sufficient."

Asked what his son is doing now, Lewis said, "I don't recall."

Holcomb called Viron Lewis' 12-year sentence "a form of shock probation" 
used by judges to "shock you into good behavior."

With good time, that sentence would be cut to six years, but Holcomb said 
even a six-year sentence was harsh, given that Lewis was only 20 or 22. "If 
at age 22 somebody had said you've got to be locked up until you're 28, 
that would have been the end of the world for me," Holcomb said. He said 
Lewis' youth and changed character were the key reasons for the court's 
subsequent leniency.

In fact, Lewis was 28 when he was arrested for dealing in cocaine.

Under federal law, sentence modifications are restricted to cases in which 
convicts work with police to make cases against other criminals or a few 
instances of extreme medical hardship such as a terminal illness.

In Lake County, Carter said, sentence modifications are "very rare."

In fact, Carter suggested that Viron Lewis' modification "might be the only 
one I've ever moved on absent technical problems" with the plea bargain 
agreement itself or cooperation with police.

He recalled that Lewis' "attorneys argued that he was reformed. He wanted 
to get his life straight," Carter said. But he also said he hears that kind 
of argument all the time, and doesn't act on it. He had no explanation why 
he listened this time, though he emphasized he initially had insisted upon 
the Class B conviction after Lewis sought to plead to a Class C felony.

As to Robert Lewis' contribution of $2,000 to Carter's campaign committee 
in 1999 -- $1,000 in February and $1,000 in July -- Carter said he wouldn't 
even have known about the donation until he signed his committee report 
after the turn of the year, though he said he may have noticed that Robert 
Lewis and others in his law firm had come to his fund-raiser.

Lewis asserted his political support of Carter had nothing to do with the 
prosecutor's support of the sentence modification for his son. "I've been a 
generous contributor to the governor and to other politicians," Lewis noted.

His generosity to Carter's campaign committee, however, did not extend to 
the year 2000, when Citizens for Carter reported no contribution from the 
Gary lawyer, though the committee raised almost as much money that year as 
it did in 1999.
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