04/15/2003

A federal judge has sentenced a former Fall River man to 15 years in prison for dealing crack cocaine and illegal possession of a gun..

Leonard Baskin, 24, formerly of 7b Pleasant View St., was arrested in April 2001 in a police raid at the Swansea Motor Inn on Route 6 in Swansea on charges of dealing cocaine and being a felon in possession of a gun, along with another gun charge. He was convicted of the first two charges in December 2002 after a five-day jury trial in federal court in Boston. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf sentenced Baskin, and ordered that after the 15 years, Baskin also have 8 years of supervised release.

Baskin was acquitted of the third charge, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug dealing offense.

In the early morning of April 23, 2001, the state police Special Operations Team raided the Swansea Motor Inn, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. The state police found a cocked .45-caliber handgun and 43 grams of cocaine, packaged for distribution, beneath the bed in the room where Baskin was staying, according to the statement.

"This defendant posed a substantial risk to the community by dealing drugs and carrying a gun," Sullivan stated. "This office in coordination with the Bristol County District Attorney's Office agreed to prosecute Baskin federally, as part of our Safe Neighborhoods initiative, and as a result of this case, we have taken a dangerous crack dealer off the streets."

The authorities said they also found $1,400 in cash in Baskin's pants pocket and that Baskin had picked up a 15-year-old runaway girl that weekend, persuading her to stay with him in the motel room. Statutory rape charges are pending against Baskin in Bristol County, according to the statement.

-- Michael P. McKinney