Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jun 2004
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2004 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily 
home delivery circulation area.
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

RALEIGH MAN CONVICTED OF HAVING FAKE COCAINE WILL GET A NEW TRIAL

Court says characterization of neighborhood was inadmissable

RALEIGH - A man convicted of possessing fake crack cocaine will get a new 
trial after the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that a judge 
improperly allowed testimony that the man was arrested in what authorities 
considered an "open-air market for drugs."

The characterization of the downtown Raleigh neighborhood where police 
picked up Michael Cornelius Williams in December 2002 was "inadmissible 
hearsay" that may have helped result in a wrongful conviction, the court 
ruled unanimously.

Jurors found Williams, 34, guilty of possession with intent to sell 
counterfeit cocaine and possession with intent to deliver counterfeit cocaine.

He was found to be a habitual felon and sentenced to up to 12 years and 
nine months in prison. Jurors acquitted him of the sale of counterfeit 
cocaine and the delivery of crack cocaine.

The guilty verdicts shouldn't stand because jurors acquitted Williams of 
selling the drugs, the judges said. Possessing counterfeit drugs is not a 
crime.

Williams was arrested as he sat on a porch with several other men after two 
other officers bought what they believed to be crack cocaine in the same 
neighborhood.

One officer said he saw Williams drop an item that looked like crack, but 
that analysis found to be headache powder. The officers who made the 
purchase found later that they had paid $20 for a package of Goody's 
Headache Powder.

Officer M.E. Campos of the Raleigh Police Department identified Williams as 
the person who sold them drugs, charges that the jury rejected.

"In that instance, North Carolina law would require acquittal because the 
mere possession of a counterfeit controlled substance is not a crime," 
according to the opinion written by Judge James A. Wynn Jr.

"We conclude admission of the neighborhood's reputation was not harmless 
error as there was not overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt."

During Williams' trial, his attorney objected several times as Campos 
described how "crackheads" gathered in the neighborhood and drug dealers 
waved down cars. Campos said he knew of 15 to 20 other arrests of suspected 
drug dealers in the area.

Brian Michael Aus, an attorney from Durham who represented Williams in his 
appeal, said that the testimony about the neighborhood undoubtedly played a 
role in Williams' conviction since jurors determined that his client didn't 
sell anything to the officers but only possessed the same substance that he 
had bought.

"It basically made him guilty just by being in the neighborhood," Aus said 
yesterday.
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