http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 343752.htm

Posted on Wed, Aug. 23, 2006

Jury considering case against owners of labor camps in N.C., Fla.

RON WORD
Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the trial of a couple who are accused of selling crack cocaine to migrants workers at their farm labor camps in North Carolina and Florida.

The jury of 10 men and two women began deliberating the 58 counts against Ronald Evans Sr. and 51 charges against his wife Jequita Evans in connection with labor camps they ran in near Palatka, Fla., and Newton Grove, N.C. Deliberations went on about an hour after closing arguments and will resume Thursday morning

Susan French, an attorney with the civil rights division of the Justice Department, said the couple sold their migrant workers cocaine, cigarettes and beer on credit, deducting it from their wages they earned working on potato and cabbage farms, They often finished the week in debt.

"They exploited the laborers' habit," she said, claiming the Evans and his wife recruited homeless people and crack addicts to work for them.

Attorney William Kent, who represents Ronald Evans Sr., said most of the witnesses against Evans and his wife had a "personal bias, a reason to lie and were not credible."

Evans and his wife may not be perfect, Kent said, but they are not the "sinister exploiters," that the government claims they are.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sciortino countered that the government had proven its case with testimony and records.

He acknowledged some of the witnesses were drug users and drug addicts, but their stories were true.

"The essential details of their testimony lines up perfectly," he said.

If convicted, Evans and his wife could receive up to life in prison.

Both are charged with drug conspiracy charges and 49 counts of intentionally arranging cash withdrawals under $10,000 to avoid federal reporting requirement.

Ronald Evans Sr. also faces charges of dumping sewage into a creek, transporting untaxed cigarettes across state lines and running a continuing criminal enterprise.

The couple's son, Ronald Evans Jr., 32, pleaded guilty in July to federal drug conspiracy charge. He admitted making sure a supply of cocaine was available, beginning in 2001 when he went to work full time for his father.

When authorities raided the East Palatka camp last summer, they found 148 individually wrapped crack cocaine rocks, about 20 cases of beer and dozens of cartons of cigarettes.

Three others have pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme and two more have been fugitives for about a year.