smudbud

Pubdate: Wed, 10 Mar 1999
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
Address: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: David R. Anderson, of the [Portland] Oregonian staff
Defense Lawyers Want Police To Disclose Task Force's Ways (The Oregonian says
lawyers for Neil Jeffery Hauser of Bend are demanding to know whether
Portland police illegally used a "trap and trace" device to provide
Portland's Marijuana Task Force with the phone numbers of everyone who called
American Agriculture, a Portland hydroponics supply store. Hauser is charged
with posing as a police officer when he taped a phone conversation with an
officer on the task force. Hauser's lawyers say the case could lead to the
reversal of hundreds of marijuana grow convictions if a judge rules the trap
was illegal and that evidence obtained as a result must be thrown out. In
addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug forfeiture assets might be
up for grabs. According to cops, the Multnomah County District Attorney's
office prosecuted an estimated 175 marijuana grow cases last year, 248 in
1997 and 364 in 1996. Official figures claim the Marijuana Task Force seized
126 marijuana grows last year and got $186,000 in forfeited cash, property
and real estate.)
Police used phone records to track down suspected marijuana growers by
obtaining the addresses from the phone numbers, checking to see if
they were using enough electricity to sustain a grow operation, then
knocking on their doors in so-called "knock and talks," according to
the transcript of the conversation. Police have been trapping the
phone of American Agriculture at 9220 SE Stark Street since at least
1995, according to the document.
The Multnomah County District Attorney's office prosecuted an
estimated 175 marijuana grow cases last year, 248 in 1997 and 364 in
1996, said Tom Simpson, a management assistant. The task force seized
126 marijuana grows last year and got $186,000 in forfeited cash,
property and real estate, Ferraris said.