Pubdate: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 Source: Charlotte Observer (NC) Copyright: 1999 The Charlotte Observer Contact: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/ Author: Thomas Martello 2 STATE TROOPERS INDICTED IN SHOOTING ON N.J. TURNPIKE Two state troopers were indicted on attempted murder charges Tuesday for shooting three black and Hispanic men on the New Jersey Turnpike -- one of several cases that have stirred a nationwide debate over racial profiling by police. John Hogan, 29, and James Kenna, 28, could get up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the state charges. The troopers are accused of firing 11 shots into a van containing four young men on their way to a basketball tryout at N.C. Central University in Durham in 1998. Two black men and a Hispanic man were wounded, and they have filed civil rights and injury lawsuits against the troopers and the state. Hogan and Kenna, who are white, have said they stopped the van because the driver was speeding and opened fire because it appeared the van was backing up to hit them. Hogan's lawyer, Robert Galantucci, said Hogan was struck by the van on a dark stretch of highway and had only seconds to respond. He called the indictment "politically motivated." The shooting triggered protests and internal investigations that embroiled the New Jersey State Police in the controversy over the practice of stopping motorists on the basis of race. Earlier this year, Gov. Christie Whitman fired the State Police superintendent after he said minorities were responsible for most of the state's cocaine and marijuana traffic. In June, President Clinton issued an executive order calling on federal law enforcement agencies to collect race and gender data in all stops and arrests. Police in several places, including North Carolina, Houston, San Diego and San Jose, Calif., have taken similar measures. In April, Hogan and Kenna were indicted on charges of falsifying traffic-stop reports to conceal the fact they were stopping a lot of black drivers. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea