Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 20 February 2003 — Page 4

continued from page 3. The lawsuit would take five years to be settled, and the settlement would require troopers to keep data on who was pulled over and searched. The data would convince Wilkins and the ACLU that not enough had changed, and a second class-action lawsuit would be filed, as well as a motion to enforce the settlement of his lawsuit. The second suit would linger for another five years until a proposed settlement reached the state's Board of Public Works. After years of negotiations, details were hammered out: a citizen review board, a toll-free number to register complaints, a policy that troopers tell motorists they have the right to refuse a search. Civil rights groups would say the proposed policies could set a precedent. Wilkins would see a light at the end of the tunnel; he would feel the 10 years of waiting about to pay off. Then, like so many times before, he would face yet another hurdle. In January, two members of the Board of Public Works, state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, postponed the vote at Gov. Parris N. Glendening's last meeting while in office so that new Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich and the new state police commissioner, Edward T. Norris, could review the

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proposals. Wilkins had hoped it would be voted on during yesterday's board meeting, but it wasn't. In the 10 years since he was pulled over, much has changed in Wilkins' life. He married, had two children, left public practice, was hired as a partner by the Venable law firm's Washington office, and was appointed to a presidential panel studying the creation of a national museum to recognize the history of black Americans. In that decade, Wilkins came to understand why his plaintiffs were always complaining about how slowly the court system worked. He was encouraged when the discovery process revealed an internal memo that told Maryland state troopers to be suspicious of young black men and women in rentalcars with D.C. tags, because they might be ferrying drugs. That came early in the case, and after that, he was discouraged time and time again. He received telephone calls from people labeling him a liar, a troublemaker, or worse. He was asked to speak to law students and civic groups, and he received an occasional card of thanks or an e-mail of support. He wrote letters to the editors of newspapers, was interviewed on Nightline, heard from lawyers in other states whose clients

had been pulled over and searched. One of Wilkins’ lawyers, Deborah Jeon of the Maryland ACLU, witnessed his journey and not once saw him lose his temper. Other plaintiffs in other class-action suits dropped out over time, but not Wilkins. His mother followed the news of his lawsuit from her home in Muncie, and she worried about him now and then. She heard of other “driving while black” cases, and so did he: Two seniors searched on 1-95, their belongings strewn on the highway; a black police officer in Florida, stopped while off-duty; a Baltimore lawyer driving a BMW, pulled over for speeding but never given a ticket. And like her son, Joyce Wilkins was speechless when an editorial writer compared his actions to those of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. When the German shepherd finally arrived that rainy Monday morning in Cumberland, Robert Wilkins and his relatives stood by the side of the road in the drizzle while the dog jumped on the Cadillac. It sniffed the grille and climbed the hood to search under the windshield wipers. It sniffed the headlights, the tires and the wheel rims, and it jumped on the sides to sniff the area where the windows retract into the doors. The worst, the part that humiliated Wilkins the most, was not the other police cars that had

arrived, not the rain, and not the motorists who slowed to stare, but their children, who pressed their faces against the windows and pointed. “I remember very vividly ... thinking to myself these kids are looking at us, and they're looking at these flashing lights, and they're looking at this dog, and they're putting two and two together and getting five: Here are these black people who have done something wrong and the police have got them. It was a very humiliating, frustrating, infuriating feeling.” Ten years later, after the Board of Public Works vote in January, Wilkins was preparing to take his 4-year-old to preschool when the boy asked Wilkins why his picture was in the newspaper.. For the first time in 10 years, Wilkins had little to say about the incident. He thought the issue too complicated for his son to understand, and he thought his son too innocent to have his worldview altered by such an adult concept as mistrust. So Wilkins said little that morning, and he will say little about it to his son until the time is right. By the time his boys are old enough to understand, the case should be settled, and farreaching policies could be in place. Wilkins hopes a day will come when a father and his sons do not have to have this

conversation. Until that day comes, he will do what he has done: Hope and wait. President's proposed budget “recipe for disaster” ST. LOUIS President Bush's 2004 budget would dramatically overhaul social welfare programs, inflict tighter requirements for free school lunches and reduce allocations to Medicaid, Section 8 and Head Start programs. Critics say the proposed budget is part of a conservative effort to disassemble social programs for the elderly and poor. But aides in Sen. Kit Bond's office today said the senator is a strong supporter of Head Start and Section 8 and its too early to tell what the proposal means for the programs. Under the proposed budget plan, low-income families would be required to submit more proof of income to qualify for aid, including the National School Lunch program which provides free meals to children. School administrators say it would be unfair and confusing to ask parents for more information before their kids could eat at school. continue on page 5.