Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Lawyer thrusts, parries at once

In his practice, Darryl Rouson defends people facing drug charges. As NAACP leader, he decries dealers.

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Published April 25, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - The sometimes unorthodox anti-drug crusade of St. Petersburg lawyer and NAACP president Darryl Rouson is well known.

In 2001, authorities charged him with petty theft after he took 11 glass tubes containing silk roses from a St. Petersburg gas station. Rouson said buyers misused the decorative tubes to smoke drugs such as crack.

That charge was dropped but now he's facing another one.

On Tuesday he is scheduled to stand trial on a misdemeanor trespassing charge related to a visit to a tobacco and accessories shop last year. There, he has said, he demanded the owner stop selling "death utensils," referring to legal glass smoking pipes he says addicts also misuse for illegal drugs.

Rouson has long and publicly lamented the scourge of drugs and drug dealers in St. Petersburg.

What's less widely known is that in his legal practice, the 49-year-old has defended alleged drug suppliers as well as people accused of drug possession.

In the past year his firm, Rouson & Brumley, has defended at least two people charged with cocaine trafficking. It also has represented more than a dozen people accused of having small amounts of cocaine or marijuana, according to Pinellas court records.

Rouson sees no contradiction between his client list and his anti-drug work.

"I think my role is different because of my experiences," said Rouson, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who marked his seventh year of sobriety in March.

Others, however, say taking such cases, particularly of those accused of supplying drugs, weakens Rouson's anti-drug crusade.

"Here's a guy who's making his bread and butter off people who are drug traffickers, people who are using drugs," said Pinellas-Pasco Assistant State Attorney Dave Tobiassen, who is prosecuting the case against Rouson Tuesday.

"But then you want to flip it around and protest. Everyone's entitled to a zealous defense, but if he's also representing traffickers, you're helping the guy who's supplying the people using drugs, the people you say you're trying to help."

In recent interviews, Rouson said his defense of people facing drug charges is an extension of his battles against drugs and their negative effects. He acknowledged that "I've been known to say that people caught with large quantities (of drugs) deserve everything they get." But he quickly added that everyone is entitled to due process and "another chance at life."

Moreover, Rouson said, he "ministers" to some clients, especially addicts, as he defends them. Some of his former clients paint him as a savior in a criminal justice system they say is intent on imprisoning African-Americans even on bogus convictions.

Rouson said he had no qualms defending such people because they're usually drug users. He advocates treatment rather than jail.

"Having been there, I have affection and affinity towards others who are suffering from substance abuse," he said. "I'm passionate about defending persons who are crippled with addiction, and I don't see that as being hypocritical.

"I will until the day I die defend a drug addict charged with possession of paraphernalia or drugs because it gives me an opportunity to minister as I defend," he continued.

Rouson said the majority of his firm's cases - about 65 percent - involve personal injury. About 25 percent of the cases are criminal. Of the criminal cases, he said 5 to 10 percent of clients are accused of dealing drugs.

Rouson said he doesn't indiscriminately represent drug-dealing suspects, who have regularly sought his counsel. He said he encourages them to rechannel their "business acumen towards legitimate purposes." If he feels they're "remorseful and regretful," then he'll take on their case. If not, he shows them the door.

* * *

One recent case he did take was that of Valarian Brown, 32, of St. Petersburg.

One afternoon last October, U.S. marshals forced their way into a home on 14th Street S, according to police reports. The man they were there to arrest wasn't at the home, but Brown and another man were.

The men's hands were "wet to the touch" and they had "flushed drugs down the drain and the toilet," reports say.

"I looked on the bathroom floor and noticed what appeared to be cocaine laying near the toilet," St. Petersburg police Officer Anthony McCoy, who assisted the marshals, wrote in his report. Police say they found a 9mm handgun and 28 grams of cocaine, according to Brown's arrest affidavit.

Brown was charged with trafficking in cocaine and tampering with physical evidence, according to Pinellas court records. He hired Rouson.

The following month, in November, State Attorney Bernie McCabe's office dropped the case against Brown. Bruce Bartlett, a spokesman at the office, declined to say why. According to St. Petersburg police reports, authorities didn't have a warrant to search the home.

Brown said he was falsely accused and that Rouson saved him from a wrongful conviction. Brown said he never lived at the 14th Street home.

"He's actually saving people from perishing in the belly of the whale, which is the county jail and the state prisons," Brown said of Rouson.

"Young black men and young black women are going to prison because of injustices," Brown continued. "They can't afford a private attorney, someone to be on their side, to be an advocate. What he did for me was he righted a wrong of the justice system."

Rouson is working to get back $1,480 as well as a Rolex watch and a gold and diamond ring police confiscated from Brown.

Watson Haynes, president and CEO of the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free St. Petersburg, said Rouson has a family to feed and the right to do so by representing anyone he chooses. On the other hand, given Rouson's "passionate" stance on drugs, Haynes said he hoped Rouson was taking on such cases for reasons beyond his livelihood.

"Maybe it's the Rousons of the world who can turn somebody's life around because of their own experiences," Haynes said. "He can say to a drug dealer, "I'll represent you but you've got to change your lifestyle.' If he's utilizing that for ... education, there may be some value there."

James R. McDonough, director of the state Office of Drug Control, heard Rouson speak before the Drug Policy Advisory Council in February. McDonough co-chairs the council, which makes recommendations to lawmakers and the governor about drug policy. Rouson is seeking tougher laws or regulations for tobacco shops.

McDonough said Rouson's efforts against the shops "seem to be a sincerely motivated campaign."

Last June, Rouson visited Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories Shop, 1437 34th St. S. The owner has said he and an employee repeatedly asked Rouson to leave but he refused.

Rouson maintains he was afraid to move because of pit bullterriers in the store.

A Pinellas County jury will decide whom they believe.

"Hypocrisy to me is when you pretend that Purple Haze sells pipes for tobacco smoking," Rouson said.

--Marcus Franklin can be reached at mfranklin@sptimes.com or 727 893-8488.

[Last modified April 25, 2005, 01:04:14]