Pubdate: Thu, 01 Feb 2001
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Section: FloridaMetro Page 4
Copyright: 2001, The Tribune Co
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Forum: http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm
Author: Keith Morelli, Tampa Tribune

CRITICIZED JUDGE SENTENCES WOMAN AS YOUTH

A Hillsborough Circuit Judge Finds A Way Around A Mandatory Three-Year 
Prison Sentence For A Drug Defendant

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Florence Foster, who has been criticized by some 
as too soft on drug defendants, Tuesday suspended the three-year prison 
sentence of a woman charged with trafficking in methamphetamines.

State law calls for a mandatory three-year prison term for a conviction of 
the first-degree felony, but Foster imposed a lesser sentence by deciding 
that Marie Manning was a youthful offender. Foster said the offense 
occurred two months before Manning turned 21, the limit for youthful offenders.

Prosecutors complained that Foster should not have been handling Manning's 
case because of a recent administrative order that removed Foster and 
another drug court judge from first-degree felony cases. Assistant State 
Attorney Steve Wetter objected to Foster's sentence in the Manning case. He 
had asked for a seven-year prison sentence.

A first-time offender, Manning, now 22, agreed to plead guilty to the 
trafficking charge after Foster indicated at a hearing last week that the 
defendant would not go to prison.

The sentence included probation and time at a drug treatment facility in 
Avon Park.

Foster could not be reached for comment.

Foster has drawn the criticism of prosecutors who accuse her of being 
lenient with offenders, pointing to a pair of recent cases.

Last month, Foster refused to sentence a repeat drug offender to prison 
because she said he was too small and white and would become a sexual target.

Her comments drew fire from prosecutors and the National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People.

Prosecutors said that under state sentencing guidelines, 41-year-old Paul 
Hamill should have been given two years in prison for repeatedly violating 
probation on a drug offense. Instead, Foster ordered Hamill into a drug 
treatment facility and sentenced him to two years of community control. 
Foster's reasons for not sending Hamill to prison prompted the NAACP to 
file a formal complaint. Foster apologized.

More trouble followed when Foster allowed a Hillsborough County jail inmate 
charged with 17 counts of possession and delivery of cocaine to leave jail 
to attend his grandmother's funeral.

Roy Nathan, 20, was released from the Orient Road Jail on Feb. 3 to attend 
the funeral. Foster signed the furlough order.

She instructed him to return by 5 p.m. that day, but Nathan didn't. 
Instead, he and his girlfriend bolted, deputies said. Both were arrested 
the next day at a Tampa motel.
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