ARREST MAY SOUR SWEET DRUG DEAL

A former Life University chiropractic student who a decade ago traded
a prison sentence for probation in exchange for a $200,000 "donation"
to the Cobb County drug task force has been arrested again.

Markell Boulis, originally sentenced to serve five years in prison
after a 1993 drug possession conviction, was given probation and first
offender status in a deal approved by then-Cobb District Attorney Tom
Charron. After 25 years on probation his criminal record would be
erased, according to the deal.

Pat Head, Cobb's current district attorney, said Wednesday that if
Boulis is convicted of the June 12 felony drug possession charge in
Ohio, he could be jailed for the rest of his 25-year probation.
Authorities in Cleveland said Tuesday that Boulis had been released on
bond from the Cuyahoga County Jail.

Boulis was a senior at Life chiropractic school in Marietta and worked
as a bouncer at Boomers strip club when arrested in September 1991 on
charges he tried to sell 16.2 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer.

In December 1993, a jury found Boulis guilty of drug possession, and
he was sentenced to five years in prison, 25 years of probation and a
$50,000 fine.

"It was my cocaine," he admitted in court. "I purchased it, and I was
going to distribute it."

His jail term was eliminated after Boulis' lawyer worked out an
agreement with Charron in which Boulis paid $200,000 to the
Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Narcotics Unit and agreed to spend his nights for
six months at Pennsylvania diversion center.

Boulis presented $200,000 and drove back to Pennsylvania in his
Mercedes.

The Boulis deal, revealed in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article,
prompted then-Gov. Zell Miller to order former Attorney General Mike
Bowers to investigate. After six weeks, Bowers called the "donation"
illegal and the resentencing deal "an obvious attempt to circumvent
the law."

Since the Boulis deal:

Pennsylvania revoked Boulis' chiropractic license.

Cobb commissioners ordered the $200,000 payment be taken from the drug
task force and deposited in the county's general fund.

The Georgia House unanimously passed a bill to prohibit prosecutors
from reducing or eliminating criminal sentences in exchange for money.
The bill never became law, but the Legislature altered sentencing
rules to deter such deals.