Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 Source: Newsday (NY) Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc. Contact: http://www.newsday.com/homepage.htm Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308 Author: Robert T. Johnson Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n067/a07.html?397 Note: The writer is the Bronx district attorney. DRUG BUST Ellis Henican's column about Darryl Best, who was recently sentenced to 15-years-to-life imprisonment for drug possession ["Time to Reform Drug Laws," Jan. 9], is truly remarkable for the volume and nature of what it omits as well as for the inaccuracy of what it does contain. The column depicts the defendant as the subject of a "drug conviction flimsier than most," who merely signed for a delivered package of drugs "without his reading glasses." It characterizes the case as "wobbly," describes a 1-year "sweet plea deal" offered by my office, and sympathetically portrays the defendant as a dedicated family man. Entirely omitted were a few salient facts. The defendant, a former New York City police officer, had once been suspended from the force for illegal drug use. He accepted delivery of a package from Texas containing about one pound of cocaine, worth some $14,000, which had been addressed to a woman at his uncle's address. As for accuracy, no such "sweet plea deal" was ever offered. As for the broader issue of reform of the so-called "Rockefeller drug laws," I and other district attorneys, who Henican says are "helping to block progress," have stated many times that consistent with considerations of public safety, we could support some reasoned reform of these laws. But the cause of reform is not served by such completely one-sided, inaccurate and biased "illustrations." What such cases do illustrate, once all the facts are out, is that reform of these laws is a more subtle and complex undertaking than many would like to believe. Robert T. Johnson Bronx - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk