FIRST OFF

Two members of the singing DeBarge family--Jonathan (Chico) DeBarge, 22, and Robert (Bobby) DeBarge, 26--have been convicted on cocaine trafficking charges and face possible life prison terms and $4 million in fines when sentenced in January. The DeBarge brothers and two other men--Dwayne O. Hill, 24, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Mark Douglas of Los Angeles--were found guilty in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo, Mich., of conspiring to smuggle more than 2 pounds of cocaine to Michigan from Los Angeles earlier this year. At a bail hearing Thursday, Robert DeBarge was denied bond and remains in Kalamazoo County Jail, while bail for Jonathan DeBarge was set at $25,000, with the extra proviso that he remain in western Michigan. Hill and Jonathan DeBarge were stopped June 28 by federal drug agents at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The agents then used the pair to implicate their co-conspirators: Douglas, Robert DeBarge and Michael Jamison, 26, of Grand Rapids, who earlier pleaded guilty to distribution of a kilogram of cocaine and faces up to 40 years in prison for his role in the trafficking.