Cocaine Cache Is Described as Trial of Bond’s Reputed Girlfriend Starts

DECATUR, Ga. —  Authorities who raided the home of the reputed girlfriend of civil rights veteran Julian Bond netted 282 grams of cocaine and a .38-caliber pistol, the prosecutor said Tuesday in the woman’s trial.

As the trial got under way with opening statements, defense attorneys countered that Carmen Lopez Butler, charged with drug trafficking, did not know the drugs were there, and scolded the prosecution for making the amount of cocaine sound bigger than it was.

It equals about 9.87 ounces, defense attorney Darel Mitchell said, adding: “A gentleman could get it in his coat pocket, and you’d never know he had it.”

Butler was linked to Bond after the former state senator’s estranged wife, Alice, told police the woman was supplying her husband with cocaine. Bond has denied drug abuse and has not been charged with any crime.

Mitchell said he hoped in the trial to separate Butler from what he called the “hoopla” over Mrs. Bond’s allegations that her husband and other prominent Atlantans used cocaine.

The attorney said he has not decided whether to call Bond as a witness in the case.

Butler was arrested on Nov. 21 and jailed pending the outcome of her trial. She was indicted on charges of cocaine trafficking, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.