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.