no Watergate here
Davis continues marijuana crusade from prison Prosecutor defends judge's sentence
Westminster marijuana-rights activist Pamela Snowhite Davis -- with barely a week of her two-year drug sentence under her belt -- isn't about to give up her crusade just because she's behind bars.
"My mind, body and spirit are preparing for war," she wrote in a letter from the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup received yesterday by her husband, Daniel Davis, and son, David Kif Davis. "They have given me reason. Finally, they have gone too far."
"They" are the prosecutors -- especially Assistant State's Attorney Barton F. Walker III, coordinator of the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force -- the police and judiciary of Carroll County.
Last Wednesday, Carroll Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. sentenced Pamela Davis, 48, to five years in state prison for maintaining a common nuisance, a felony drug charge on which she was convicted by a Carroll jury in March.
The judge also sentenced her to one year, concurrent to the felony sentence, for marijuana possession. He suspended all but two years of her prison time, but fined her $2,500 and ordered her to serve five years of supervised probation after prison.
The sentence and conviction stem from a May 1992 raid on Davis' 80-acre farm, Terrapin Station, after task force officers dressed as United Parcel Service employees delivered a package containing 1.5 ounces of marijuana to the farm. The raiders seized less than an ounce of marijuana and some drug paraphernalia -- enough for a jury to convict her.
"Beck, Walker and the rest will be felled -- it's just a matter of time," Davis said in her letter from jail. "The system will crumble, their concept of justice will be turned back on them. Let the war crime tribunals begin!"
Since her sentencing, Davis' supporters have expressed outrage at Judge Beck. On Route 140, an anonymous spray-painter edited a state public service billboard touting recycling. The billboard now reads, "Recycle your justice system. Free Pam Davis."
"I just can't believe I am in prison," she wrote. "It just doesn't seem possible. . . . I hate this place, and I hate being here, but I'm going to do my best to get through it. It is frustrating to feel so innocent and yet be looking at so much punishment for a no-harm crime."
Mr. Walker, who says he feels sorry for the pain Pamela Davis is going through, said yesterday, "When one is hurt, we all hurt. But when society is hurt, we all hurt, too. People criticize Judge Beck's sentence, saying he has no compassion. He has compassion -- for the citizens of Carroll County -- and he sent a message that we are not going to tolerate drugs.
"Call it hard-line, but I just call it a job."
Pamela Davis' son, who uses his middle name, Kif, also has declared war against the law-enforcement community.
He has filed a brutality complaint against two Carroll sheriff's deputies who arrested him last Wednesday and charged him with battery and disorderly conduct after his mother's sentencing.
He was thrown out of the courtroom after he made disparaging remarks about task force officers seated behind him.
In the hallway,he shouted, "All you cops out here are fascists." As he shouted, he pointed his finger at Deputy Jay Prise and lightly touched him. Deputy Prise arrested him.
In his brutality complaint, Kif Davis says Deputy Prise and Deputy Mark Gonder smashed his face against a concrete floor, twisted his hands and verbally harassed him.
"I received treatment which borders on torture," Kif Davis wrote in the complaint, given to Sheriff John H. Brown late Friday.
Sheriff Brown defended his officers yesterday, saying he witnessed Kif Davis' booking.
"All I saw was two officers bringing a person in in handcuffs," the sheriff said.
Sheriff Brown said that the investigation "would be complete. There's no Watergate here." He said the investigation would take about a week.
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