RACKETEERING TRIAL STARTS TODAY

PJC. Project Crud. Westside Crew. Whether it was a gang or a rap
group, federal prosecutors say it represented a powerful drug ring
that sought to control the narcotics trade on Charlottesville's west
side through violence and intimidation.

At its helm, authorities say, was Louis Antonio Bryant, a local
recording artist and self-proclaimed "crack artist" who referenced
street life in his music.

Facing federal charges of racketeering and leading a criminal
enterprise, Bryant goes to trial today, with prosecutors primed to
offer ballistics evidence, cell phone records, recordings from
jailhouse conversations, videotapes seized by law enforcement and
selections from Bryant's album, "B-Stacks," to show how PJC operated.

He will spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of
leading a criminal enterprise.

"Uhh, I like it like that. I'm clutchin' my gat. I don't know how to
act," raps Bryant on the album he recorded at his uncle's house on
Charlton Avenue. "Forty-four for 'em, .357, AK-47 or the Mac 11. I'm
a gun slinga, I'll have ya neck and ya back hurtin' or shoot ya tires
off and have that Cadillac swervin'. I can't help it, I was raised
that way, you shoot me I'm hittin' back with the K."

With the announcement of a drug conspiracy indictment in July 2004
and another indictment in February, Bryant, known on the street as
"Tinio," "Black" or "B-Stacks," has achieved more notoriety around
town from the federal prosecution hanging over his head than from his
fledgling career as a rapper.

Bryant's uncle, John D. Bryant, Claiborne Lemar Maupin and Terrance
Suggs also face life in prison if convicted of conspiring to
distribute crack and using intimidation to run a narcotics
enterprise. Twelve co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and
could provide critical testimony in the next two to three weeks.

Though prosecutors have remained mum on specific evidence they plan
to introduce at trial, a 50-page indictment handed down in February
chronicles nearly 10 years of violent acts believed to have been
committed to protect a widespread crack-dealing enterprise, including
drug possession, witness tampering, firearms violations, threats to
commit murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and murder.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, trial is
slated to last at least two weeks.

The RICO Act, passed by Congress in 1970, requires prosecutors to
link two or more criminal acts that amount to continued criminal activity.

In the mid-1990s, Bryant started dealing crack, and with the help of
family members and friends, expanded his business be-yond
Char-lottesville, from New York City to Philadelphia to Durham, N.C.,
according to the indictment.

As the enterprise grew, so did the number of violent incidents,
prosecutors say.

"There's some people that are drug suppliers and some people that are
middlemen and some who are hand-to-hand sellers. There are some that
are shooters and some who were drivers," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Timothy J. Heaphy. "They do have, just like any business, assigned roles."

Bryant personally committed assaults to protect the organization and
earned a reputation for violence that helped protect the drug ring,
prosecutors say, including the April 2004 kidnapping of three men he
believed intercepted a shipment of 50 pounds of marijuana from Philadelphia.

The indictment lists more than a dozen incidents that occurred in the
neighborhoods around 10th and Page streets, including drug buys,
assaults and two killings.

Some residents of the 10th Street neighborhood, speaking on condition
of anonymity, say Project Crud is not a gang. They concede, however,
that things have improved in recent years, pointing to a row of
houses under construction where there used to be crack houses.

"You see a lot of change from last year," said a man in his late 30s.
"You don't see anything here. What do you see? Nothing. You wouldn't
be able to walk down this street 10 years ago."

The man added, however, that he doesn't trust authorities or the case
they've built against Bryant and the others.

"It's a rap group," one teenager said of PJC.

"They classify the guys around here as gangs," said one mother as a
school bus dropped off about a dozen children on the corner of 10th
and Page. "It's bad for the kids."