ANOTHER WEAPON IN DRUG WAR
County to Step Up Use Of Eviction Option

Montgomery County residents who suspect that drug dealers are living next
door have a not-so-new way to kick them out of the neighborhood: a
five-year-old law rarely used in the county that allows the state to evict
people believed to be harboring drug dealers or dealing drugs from their
homes.

Other Maryland counties have used the "nuisance abatement" law more often in
an effort to rid neighborhoods of drug dealers. But Montgomery prosecutors
said that they have enforced the law only six times in the last several
years.

"We've used it, but it's just been on an ad hoc basis," said Montgomery
State's Attorney Robert L. Dean, who announced last week that his office
will use the law more aggressively. "I wanted all different agencies to
understand it . . . We want communities to know this law is there."

The last 10 months, Dean said, have been spent helping Montgomery's police
officers, housing authority officials and code enforcement officials
understand the law.

Prosecuting someone on drug-dealing charges can take months, Dean said. A
drug dealer may spend that time out on bail or may even return home with a
sentence of probation after being convicted. Meanwhile, the drug problem in
the neighborhood often persists, prosecutors said.

But by using the new law and taking the suspected drug dealer into District
Court on a civil complaint, prosecutors said, those suspected of allowing
drugs to be sold from a home can be evicted in a few days. Judges don't need
as much evidence to sign an eviction order as is needed to convict someone
of a crime, prosecutors said.

Here's how it works: Residents or homeowners associations that suspect a
drug dealer in the neighborhood can complain to police or the state's
attorney's office. Neighbors who fear reprisals may remain anonymous and do
not have to testify at eviction hearings, Assistant State's Attorney James
Trusty said.

Or, police arrest a suspect on drug-dealing charges and take a complaint to
prosecutors, who may ask a judge to evict the arrested person or anyone who
knowingly let the person deal drugs out of the home. A judge hears the
complaint within two weeks.

Landlords suspected of knowing that a tenant was dealing drugs may be asked
to submit to the judge plans on how they plan to eliminate the problem in
the future.

Evicting suspected drug dealers, however, has drawn some complaints. Some
critics contend that such laws do little more than drive drug dealers from
one neighborhood to another. Others say it's unfair to evict people from
their homes when the justice system supposedly presumes they are innocent of
any crime until they are convicted in court.

"I have real concerns about the fact that someone can be evicted before they
are convicted of a crime," said Mary Jane DeFrank, director of the American
Civil Liberties Union chapter that covers Washington and Montgomery and
Prince George's counties.

"We have a justice system, and we have police," DeFrank said. "You arrest
people for criminal activities. You don't throw them or their family members
out of their homes."

Prosecutors said that those evicted so far have been renters and that they
haven't decided what to do in cases where people are suspected of dealing
drugs out of a home they own. Special circumstances, such as cases in which
children or other innocent family members would lose their home, also would
figure into a decision to seek eviction, Trusty said.

Many of those cited in the previous six complaints did not fight it in
court, Trusty said.

"A lot of times they make a speedy exit," Trusty said. "It's not comfortable
for a drug dealer to have a sheriff come up to their door and post a notice
[to appear in District Court]. That's the beauty of this thing."

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company