Judge Refuses to Set Sentence for Ex-Crack Dealer

A federal judge Monday again refused to sentence a Pacoima crack dealer convicted six years ago, protesting that the nine-year prison term required by federal law is too harsh for a man who witnesses testified has reformed.

“I will not be a party to this injustice,” declared U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter, a longtime critic of federal laws that set required prison terms for some defendants. “Congress cannot make me do this; the president cannot make me do this.”

Hatter, who has delayed sentencing Bobbie Marshall since his conviction in March 1990, again postponed action, vowing to remove himself from the case and assign it to another judge rather than impose such a sentence.

Marshall, 43, has attracted widespread support in the northeast San Fernando Valley because while he was awaiting sentencing for drug dealing in the early 1990s, he worked as a volunteer for a number of community charities and institutions, convincing even fervent anti-drug activists that he had changed for the better.

His defenders include U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City); Rev. William T. Broadus, who heads Calvary Baptist Church of Pacoima; and Yvonne Chan, principal of the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, an elementary school.

Hatter has been an outspoken critic of federal sentencing guidelines approved by Congress in the 1980s, which he complains unfairly limit the sentencing discretion of judges.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Steve Madison told the judge there was little the U.S. attorney’s office could do to reduce its request for the nine-year term, because federal prosecutors are also bound by the sentencing guidelines.

“This is obviously a very difficult case,” said Madison. “Six or eight senior people in our office met last week to discuss options. Our problem is that we operate under sentencing statutes . . . and whether we like them or not, we are bound by them.”

Responded Marshall’s attorney, Denise Meyer: “What’s frustrating is that the government says they don’t have the power to go below the sentencing guidelines . . . but they have gone below the guidelines already . . . I find it incredible.”

Originally, Marshall, who was caught selling 53 grams of crack cocaine out of his mother’s house in 1989, faced a sentence of life in prison under the federal guidelines because he had three previous drug convictions.

Over the years, however, Meyer has managed to whittle away at the term through agreements with the U.S. attorney’s office.

Madison said, however, that many of those deals were agreed upon when the sentencing guidelines were in dispute.

Hatter has indicated that he is impressed by Marshall’s reformation. He tried in 1994 to sentence Marshall to 4 1/2 years, but an appeals court ruled that the sentence did not meet federal laws.

During the delay, Marshall continued his community service projects, which have included counseling troubled children and helping to keep peace during the 1992 riots.

Marshall has been jailed since last year at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, awaiting sentencing.

The next sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 13.