WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010

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Suspects in Betts case have criminal histories

suspects from B1

robbery and other counts. Charging documents made public Tuesday offered details of the evidence linking the three to the crime, including commercial surveillance images of locations where Betts’s credit cards were used, the documents say. One of the purchases was made within two hours of his death. Relatives of two of the suspects

said Tuesday that the teens we- ren’t guilty. “It’s all fictitious,” said Michael Lancaster, Sharif Lancaster’s father.

GRETCHEN ERTL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Ellen Smith grows her medical marijuana in the basement of her home in North Scituate, R.I.

Medical marijuana poses conundrum

How state programs compare

marijuana from B1

their own marijuana, at least ini- tially; an advisory committee would later decide whether to permit cultivation. Until then, patients could only acquire the drug illegally or from five to eight government-regulated dis- pensaries. The bill goes to Mayor Adrian

M. Fenty (D), who is expected to sign it and send it to Congress, which has 30 days to review the measure before it becomes law. In the District, physician reac- tion was mixed. Internist Mahmoud Mustafa said a few of his sickest HIV pa- tients already smoke marijuana to ease pain and stimulate appe- tite. “I think it’d be great,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about [my patients] being arrested.” Hunter Groninger, medical di-

rector for palliative care at Wash- ington Hospital Center, said he would be uncomfortable recom- mending marijuana because the medical community doesn’t know enough about its benefits. Because there are no uniform standards for medical mari- juana, doctors have to rely on the experience of other doctors and their own judgment. That, they say, can lead to abuse. In California, “quick-in, quick- out mills” that readily hand out recommendations have prolifer- ated, worrying advocates, includ- ing Frank Lucido, a physician who spends half his time evaluat- ing patients for medical mari- juana. The state, the first to legal- ize medical marijuana 14 years ago, allows for a wider range of conditions, including anxiety. To guard against abuse, some

doctors say they recommend marijuana only after patients ex- haust other remedies. Some doc- tors perform drug tests as part of pre-screenings. Under Michigan’s law, all 200 of Sandro Cinti’s HIV patients at his University of Michigan clinic would qualify for marijuana. But in the year since the law took ef- fect there, he has signed off on just three or four patients suf- fering extreme pain in their fin- gers and toes.

Cinti, an infectious disease specialist, said some patients have acknowledged using mari- juana all along for pain relief and weight gain, smoking it two to five times daily. He counsels them about adverse effects, in- cluding impaired mental state and lung disease. “We’re using it as a last resort in patients who have not had any relief with any- thing else,” he said. If the experience of doctors from other states is any guide, some District doctors might be slow to recommend the drug — and some patients reluctant to take it.

Last year, Congress cleared the way for the District to enact a 1998 ballot measure that legalizes the possession, use, cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council passed legislation to implement the voter-approved initiative. Fourteen states have legalized marijuana use for medical purposes.

Approved by the D.C. Council.

PATIENT REGISTRY

Alaska

California Colorado

D.C.

Hawaii Maine

Michigan Montana Nevada

New Jersey New Mexico Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Washington

SOURCE: National Conference of State Legislatures

THE WASHINGTON POST

ALLOW DISPENSARIES SPECIFY CONDITIONS

A woman who identified her- self as Alante Saunders’s mother but declined to give her name said after the hearing that he didn’t kill anyone. “It’s my son,” she said.

A woman who answered the phone at Gray’s house declined to comment. Saunders’s criminal history

dates to 2003, when he was charged with a first-degree sex of- fense as an 11-year-old, according to charging documents filed in the Betts case in Montgomery District Court. In 2005, he was charged with trying to rob a woman on a D.C. street as she was on her way to work. In 2008, Saunders was charged with theft, receiving stolen prop- erty and operating a stolen vehi- cle. He was ordered held in a D.C. Department of Youth and Reha- bilitation Services maximum ju- venile detention facility for a month, according to records ob- tained by The Washington Post. He later went to a less secure

facility but absconded from there on or about April 1, two weeks be- fore Betts was killed, said city government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about juvenile records. It wasn’t until April 27, two weeks after Betts’s slaying, that officials notified D.C. Superior Court that Saunders had left the facility, according to the records obtained by The Post. D.C. youth services officials did not respond to requests for com- ment, and D.C. Superior Court of- ficials declined to comment. D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles said Tuesday that he would look into the issue. Lancaster has been in juvenile

court since he was 16, according to the records obtained by The Post. In January 2007, he was charged with 15 counts, including carrying a pistol without a li- cense, theft and fleeing a law en- forcement officer. He spent seven months in a secure facility, the records say. As part of a plea agreement, 13 charges were dis- missed, and D.C. Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna sentenced him to nine months of probation, allowing him to return home. Lancaster was arrested again

in January 2009 and charged with three counts, including car-

LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Montgomery County detectives carry bags of evidence from a Washington home searched in connection with the Brian Betts case.

rying a pistol without a license and unlawful possession of am- munition. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 200 hours of community service, court records say. At a hearing in March 2009, former D.C. Superior Court judge Odessa Vincent ordered Lancas- ter to remain in a juvenile facility until he could be placed in a group home. But in April 2009, according to records, officials re- leased Lancaster to his mother and never placed him in a group home. A social worker on the case had said Lancaster would be bet- ter off at a group home than with his mother. Lancaster’s mother, Artura

Otey Williams, 46, also appeared in court Tuesday and agreed to be extradited to Maryland. She is charged with trying to use Betts’s credit card at a Giant Food store. After he was released to Wil- liams, Lancaster failed to appear at subsequent hearings. The youth services representa-

tive “could not provide the court with any information regarding [Lancaster’s] whereabouts,” court records say. On March 30, 2010, a warrant was issued for him after he failed to appear at a hearing. The youth services decision an-

gered Vincent. “DYRS’s action in releasing [Lancaster] to his home was completely contrary to the dictates of the court and repre- sentations of DYRS and as such, may constitute contempt of court,” she wrote in an order. The third suspect, Gray, was being sought by authorities for failing to appear in D.C. Superior Court last month for a hearing on a January arrest on charges of un- lawful entry, court records say. When he was 16, Gray was ar- rested and charged with burglary and receiving stolen property, court records say. He spent a month in the now-closed Oak Hill

juvenile detention center and then pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. The government dismissed the burglary charge. D.C. Superior Court Judge Pa-

tricia A. Broderick ordered Gray committed to the youth services department and suggested he serve an “indeterminate period” not to exceed three years, court papers say. Youth services offi- cials, not judges, determine sen- tences. Court documents also outline

evidence in Betts’s case. Lancas- ter’s fingerprints were found in Betts’s house, charging docu- ments say, and Saunders’s finger- prints were found on Betts’s sto- len sport-utility vehicle. In one surveillance image, Lancaster and Saunders are seen trying to use, or using, Betts’s credit cards. Gray told detectives that he

was at Betts’s home at the time of the crime and said he took items from Betts’s Nissan SUV, the charging documents say. The three suspects might have been headed down a better path just before the crime. All attend- ed at least part of a retreat in Southern Maryland last month sponsored by Peaceoholics, a Dis- trict-based nonprofit that works with at-risk youths. Ronald Moten, the group’s co- founder, said that all three ar- rived April 10 and participated in group discussions about violence. Moten said that they seemed nice and that he was particularly impressed with Lancaster. “He voluntarily cleaned the whole compound,” Moten said. The three left that night. After

the retreat, two of them attended a follow-up session. “We haven’t seen them since,” Moten said. Five days after the retreat, Betts was dead.

Staff writers Henri E. Cauvin and Maria Glod contributed to this report.

GRETCHEN ERTL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Pradeep Chopra has approved the drug for five patients since Rhode Island’s program began four years ago.

“I worry about that. That’s what’s

throwing a lot of [doctors] off.”

— Pradeep Chopra, pain medicine specialist

down in tears. Her teenage son uses mari- juana and she wants him to stop, she told him. “ ‘How am I going to look if I start taking it?’ ” he re- called her saying. When Chopra suggested that another patient, Ellen Smith, 60, try marijuana three years ago, she was reluctant, as was her pri-

“There isn’t one dosage

that works for everybody.”

— Todd Handel, rehabilitation specialist

Chopra has approved the drug

for five patients since Rhode Is- land’s program began four years ago, he said. He recently turned down a request from a man in his 40s complaining of back pain. The man said he had tried chi- ropractors and physical therapy, but Chopra found no document- ed evidence. The patient then asked for a medical marijuana recommendation. Chopra re- fused.

Some patients decline the

drug, he said, for fear of sending the wrong message. Last week, when he suggested pot to a pa- tient after narcotics and surgery had failed to ease excruciating head and facial pain, she broke

mary-care doctor. She is in con- stant pain from a rare degener- ative disorder and is allergic to most pain medication, so there were no other options. She asked her four grown sons for help pro- curing the drug.

She now grows her own plants, grinds the buds to a powder that she adds to heated olive oil and mixes with apple sauce. Two tea- spoons, strained, lets her sleep through the night. “I don’t look at this as pot: It’s

my lifeline,” she said. Some doctors describe finding themselves acting as intermedi- aries in families that have mixed feelings about marijuana use. Todd Handel, a Rhode Island re-

habilitation specialist, recalls recommending marijuana to Chris Snow, 23, who has spina bi- fida and used the drug as a teen- ager. Yes, he would get stoned, Snow said, but pot also made the pain bearable. Only after con- sulting with Snow’s mother and father — a police sergeant — did Handel recommend marijuana. Snow, who lives with his par- ents, grows 12 plants — the state’s maximum allowed — in the basement. He uses a vaporiz- er that heats the drug, releasing a mist that he inhales four breaths per session, two to three times a day. His father, who did not want to be identified, said he was con- flicted about his son’s marijuana use initially, as was Snow’s older brother, also a police officer, who moved out of the house in pro- test. But the father now supports the son because he is doing much better.

Still, Handel says he wishes he had more knowledge about mari- juana and more control over dos- age. But, like his patients, he is figuring things out as he goes along. “There isn’t one dosage that works for everybody,” he said.

sunl@washpost.com

Staff writer Tim Craig and researchers Madonna Lebling and Meg Smith contributed to this report.

In cybersex, some ‘break the rules’

chat lines from B1

“People arrange to meet at your place or mine,” said Jonathan Crutchley, chairman and founder of Manhunt.com, which operates gay-oriented phone and Web chat services. “And every now and then, people get murdered. There have been some murders.” Although Crutchley said that nearly all of his customers had re- ported no problems, his site was linked to a 2003 case in Prov- incetown, Mass., in which a man who killed a lover had met sex partners online. Police said Betts, 42, the popu- lar principal at Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson, met the suspects charged in his death on a phone chat line in the hours before he was killed April 15 and arranged a meeting with at least one of them. Officials did not say what service Betts used. Three men, all 18, have been arrested and charged with murder. Dee Leander, a manager at Rip- ple Communications, a Nevada- based company that operates na- tional chat lines, said that she had been “in communication with the authorities” regarding a homicide near Washington, but she declined to elaborate. Lean- der said the greeting on one of her company’s sites, DC Raven, a Washington-oriented chat line, instructs callers “never, ever, ever, ever” to meet anyone they connect with through her service. “People are people, and they do

what they want to do,” she said. “There are many good stories. People who are socially isolated, people who are obese, who are blind talking to others. Once a year, there’s something really

bad. I’ve had at least two cases this year.” On Manhunt’s phone service, which costs less than $10 a month, users comb through re- corded voice messages and leave word for users they are interested in. On the company’s more popu- lar Web service, which costs $12 a month, users create profiles with pictures and contact each other through e-mail accounts. The company has a Web page of safety tips and disclaimers.

‘Common sense applies’

Although industry veterans said that violent crimes are rare compared with the number of people who use sex and dating services, they said that encoun- ters have gone awry. In Miami, during a six-month span in 2007, meetings originating from chat rooms resulted in at least a dozen violent incidents, including two homicides, the Miami Herald re- ported. “Even if you just go into a bar, you can have a bad experience,” Brooks said. “So common sense applies. If you are going to meet up with someone, let someone know where you are headed. Don’t let them pick you up at home. Meet somewhere public. There are three basic rules. Peo- ple break the rules.” The phone-chat services offer

several ways for users to interact. Traditionally, callers are connect- ed at random to another user al- ready on the line. If they are not interested, they can disconnect and move on to someone else. Re- cently, however, companies have offered members use of a voice- mail box through which they can record a personal message and

pore through dozens, or hun- dreds, of other people’s messages before leaving a contact number for anyone. Frederick S. Lane III, a lawyer whose 2000 book, “Obscene Prof- its: The Entrepreneurs of Pornog- raphy in the Cyber Age,” placed the annual revenue of the phone- sex business at more than $750 million, said Web-based chat sites are largely replacing phone lines as most users’ pre- ferred medium. Web sites are usually cheaper and allow users to quickly interact with more people, he said. However, some still prefer the

audio experience, Lane said, be- cause “Web sites can be tracked. It is a lot harder to track phone conversations. And don’t over- look the value of voice: It can con- vey emotion.”

A recorded voice on DC Raven

says that the service does not pre- screen callers. “What does that mean?” the voice asks. “There’s bound to be bad with some good people online.” Regulatory efforts have largely been aimed at preventing minors from using chat services. But among consenting adults, ex- perts said, the responsibility falls on them. David Bloom, who operates the

Gay Connection, one of the oldest phone services, said it began in 1985 as an anonymous way for members of the then largely clos- eted gay community to connect. He said hundreds of thousands of users call the one-on-one and party chat lines. “It’s like Facebook. It’s huge,” Bloom said. “It’s a big market, and it’s up to consenting adults.”

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