The rich are different - they have better lawyers

Here we are almost a year later and Operation Sandshaker defendants are still being tried and convicted. We talked about this here last April when the 3 year investigation led to the bust of 53 responsible citizens who had formed a cooperative of sorts to get cocaine for their personal use.

Most are seemingly ordinary, middle-aged people. They include two lawyers, a teacher, boat captain, bartender, insurance adjuster, homebuilder, hairdresser, plumber, chef and artist. The most prominent is a college foundation board member, millionaire Charles Lamar Switzer, 54, who is awaiting trial on state charges.

I told you here a few weeks later about the main defendant, Domingo Gonzalez receiving a 17 year sentence for his role. He was indigent and couldn't afford a decent lawyer. Some kingpin. He never made money at it.

Now the defendants who do have money or status are coming to trial. TChris at TalkLeft updates us on the latest conviction. David Collins co-owner of a real estate school, who also once served on the Florida Real Estate Commission, received a 3 1/2-year state prison sentence Wednesday. He was charged for trafficking only because the prosecutors added up each little personal weekend buy until they reached a weight where they could lodge the charge even though he never sold any.

Defense lawyer Drew Pinkerton said Collins will appeal but will probably serve about 18 months even if he wins because Florida's drug trafficking law prohibits appeal bonds.

"It's the most draconian law in the world," said Pinkerton, who insisted his client was a recreational user, not a trafficker. "This guy goes to prison for 42 months and half the burglars and robbers are walking around the street out there on probation."

True enough, but as TChris points out, when it's a prominent businessman it's called draconian. But where are these guys when poor blacks and Latinos are being sentenced even more cruelly for less?