And defense attorneys like former assistant district attorney Lance Garth argue that police use the law unfairly by deliberately making drug-related traffic stops near schools so they can pile on that extra charge. But I'm not sure that was the intent of the school zone law. He had picked up a package with about 250 grams of cocaine from a supplier at a meeting outside a laundromat on Route 6. He drove to a house nearby, where he made a sale, and then to a gas station, where he stopped to fill the tank of his 1985 Cadillac. Although police were tailing him even before he picked up the drugs, they did not stop him until he reached the gas station, the only one of the three places within 1,000 feet of a school, he says.
Prosecutors deny that claim.
Charged with trafficking in excess of 200 grams of cocaine, trafficking in a school zone and conspiracy to traffic, Mr. Pimental faced at least 17 years in prison. But prosecutors, who noted the purity level of the cocaine was extremely low, offered to reduce the charges if he pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses. Mr. Pimental was sentenced to 2 years and 1 day in the Bristol County House of Correction. Supporters of the DA's practice say prosecuting people for school zone offenses makes little sense in such a circumstance. Since urban areas have a higher concentration of school zones, the law often unfairly targets urban dwellers, who often are lower income minorities, notes Jack McDevitt, co-director of Northeastern University's Center for Criminal Justice.