10-29-2004, 01:17 PM
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#32 (permalink)
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disconnected
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I found a current article about this guy's specific situation. The offered him a lesser sentence if he pleaded guilty to "other crimes" but he decided to try his luck and not accept the deal. It kinda confuses me, because doesn't that indicate that the "mandatory" sentencing is anything but? Beats me, I'm no lawyer.
Quote:
Drug dealer faces 'final bad decision'
Friday, October 29, 2004
By Ed White
The Grand Rapids Press
A 31-year-old Grand Rapids man will spend life in prison for dealing drugs near a school, a punishment that could have been avoided if he had accepted a deal from federal authorities.
"I looked him in the eye. I was surprised that he persisted in going to trial," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said. "It was his final bad decision."
U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Holmes Bell had no flexibility. Federal law calls for a mandatory life sentence if someone found guilty of dealing cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school has two or more previous drug convictions.
Melvin Fudge fit into that category Thursday.
Responding to complaints about drugs, Grand Rapids police in March arrived at an apartment building at 921 E. Fulton St. At the same time, a witness saw a white sock land on the sidewalk. Inside the sock, police found 36 grams of crack cocaine and 33 grams of powder cocaine.
Fudge was arrested as he tried to escape over a fence. Inside his apartment, officers found a digital scale to weigh drugs, two televisions connected to surveillance cameras around the building, and a police scanner.
Fudge admitted throwing the sock outside and suggested he wanted to cooperate, Frank said.
"I want to work. I know some big guys. Let's do this," Fudge said, according to police.
He was hit with two felonies, including a charge of selling drugs near Congress Elementary School on Baldwin Street SE.
There was no evidence Fudge was preying on children, but authorities didn't need it to file the charge.
Frank said he offered to drop the school charge in exchange for a guilty plea to other crimes, a "fair and reasonable" deal that could have resulted in less than 20 years in prison.
Fudge, however, decided to go to trial in July, telling jurors he sold incense and body lotion, not cocaine. They didn't believe him.
Defense attorney Louise Herrick could not be reached for comment. The drastic sentence, created by Congress, has been upheld by higher courts in other cases.
"You never make charging decisions lightly," Frank said. "No one took pleasure in this."
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http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/in...1272258780.xml |
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