An attorney for Eric D. Stennett says he is being unfairly singled out for federal prosecution on a relatively routine drug-and-gun case because of his high-profile acquittal in state court in the death of a Baltimore police officer.
In raising the claim of selective prosecution, attorney Charles M. Curtis has asked a federal judge to order the U.S. attorney's office to turn over notes of any conversations with the city's top police official and prosecutor as well as with the mayor.
U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake scheduled a hearing for this morning on Stennett's request - what would be a first step in defense efforts to have the federal charges dismissed on grounds that the 19-year-old Baltimore man was intentionally treated differently from other defendants.
"It appears that his case is being prosecuted in federal court rather than state court based not on the nature of the case itself, but on Mr. Stennett's high-profile acquittal and the political needs of the police commissioner and state's attorney," Curtis said in court filings.
Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio, who is prosecuting the case against Stennett himself, rejected the defense claim as baseless.
"As for the existence of 'pressure' put on the U.S. attorney to prosecute this case in federal court, there was none," DiBiagio said in court papers. "If there is one thing that is certain, no one pressures the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland to take any case."
Stennett was arrested March 9 after a foot chase with police in West Baltimore where, officers said, they saw him drop two plastic bags containing crack cocaine and a .38-caliber revolver. Stennett faced an additional drug charge after police said they found cocaine, a drug scale and other paraphernalia in the apartment Stennett shared with his mother, Margaret Beatty.
After the arrest, Baltimore Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris urged federal authorities to prosecute the case in U.S. District Court, where Stennett would face stiffer penalties if convicted.
Stennett was acquitted early last year on state murder and manslaughter charges stemming from a high-speed car chase in April 2000 that killed Officer Kevon M. Gavin. Stennett, then 17 and wearing bulletproof body armor, was accused of leading the chase that ended with his Ford Bronco plowing into Gavin's cruiser.
Stennett was found not guilty after a jury in Baltimore Circuit Court determined that investigators had mishandled much of the evidence in the case. The jury's verdict drew loud protests from city officials and criticism of State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy.
The earlier case has loomed large over the new one. Curtis has asked Blake to move the trial outside Baltimore, because of publicity surrounding Stennett's acquittal and efforts by political leaders to ban the sale of body armor to minors after Gavin's death.
Curtis said that without the backdrop of the prior case, the new charges against Stennett never would have landed in federal court.
"The only reason this is in federal court is because of who it is, and his past history," he said yesterday.
In his court filings, Curtis also has asked for copies of DiBiagio's policies governing federal prosecutions of city gun crimes, an issue that has received considerable attention since DiBiagio was sworn in last fall and announced plans to emphasize major violent crimes, public corruption and white-collar fraud over routine street offenses.
DiBiagio countered that the case against Stennett is not a simple gun case, but rather a significant drug trafficking case.
"Clearly, federal prosecution of this type of case, rather than being unusual, is typical of what is prosecuted in this District," DiBiagio said in court papers.