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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth