Ohio Patient Network - Turnpike drug busts hit mostly minorities

In 2004, for example, only one driver stopped on suspicion of carrying drugs was white, while 26 were Latino and six were black.

Overall, a total of 15 whites were arrested from 2002 to 2004, out of more than 100 state police records reviewed from the three-year period by The Blade, of Toledo.

Sentences in the cases, mostly involving low-level drug couriers, have been light. Just 39 of the suspects remain in jail today, the newspaper said.

Only one Ohio state trooper has been disciplined for racial profiling, an incident that occurred three years ago in the Dayton area, patrol spokesman Lt. Rick Zwayer said. A message seeking further comment was not returned yesterday.

But patrol officials say the firing of a trooper in February was a case that had the markings of racial profiling.

In January, Trooper Jeffre Dickens followed a sport-utility vehicle with black passengers for 6 miles on the turnpike before stopping the vehicle, said Staff Lt. Reginald Lumpkins, chief of the patrol's administrative investigation unit.

The vehicle was moving through heavy fog without headlights - a driving hazard, but Dickens should have made the traffic stop sooner, Lumpkins said.

Dickens was fired over his decision to shoot at the SUV after the suspects drove off. Dickens contended the suspects had a gun, but no gun was found in the SUV, and the patrol later concluded that the trooper had no justifiable reason to fire his weapon.

The driver and passenger, however, were later stopped and charged with possessing 10 pounds of marijuana.

An attorney for Dickens declined to speak to The Blade, pending arbitration over his client's dismissal.

Unlawful searches aren't "made good" if police turn up contraband, racial-profiling experts say.

Jane Randall, a Toledo attorney who has represented minority defendants charged with drug trafficking, said selective enforcement poses a peril to everybody.

"If racial profiling in violation of constitutional rights is done to minorities, it is a small step before it ripples to all of us," Randall said.

Legislation aimed at measuring racial profiling has foundered in Ohio.

Democrats have introduced three bills in the House or Senate since 1999 that would require all law-enforcement agencies to collect the driver's age, gender and race in traffic stops. None of the bills made it to the floor of the Republican controlled legislature.

Some law-enforcement agencies have gone ahead with their own measures. The Montgomery County sheriff's office in Dayton began a program in 2001 that requires deputies to document the name, age, gender and race of every person stopped, along with the reason.

Toledo-area judges also are starting to raise questions about racial profiling on the turnpike, The Blade reported.

Lucas County Judge Ruth Ann Franks ruled this year that there was no traffic violation to trigger a turnpike stop of Filemon Loza-Gonzalez on Feb. 20, 2004. Troopers charged him with money laundering after a large amount of cash was found in the vehicle.

Franks granted a defense request to suppress the cash as evidence.

The county prosecutor's office has appealed.