UPn 04/08/93 1924 Daughter charges wrongful death in millionaire's shooting
LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- The daughter of a millionaire killed during a drug raid
on his Malibu ranch that failed to turn up any drugs filed a $5 million claim
Thursday against three federal agencies.
Attorney Michael Pluze said Susan Scott, 16, alleges that her father, Donald
Scott, was wrongfully killed Oct. 2, 1992.
Scott, the 61-year-old heir to a Europe-based chemicals fortune, was fatally
shot when he reportedly pointed his gun at Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies
as they raided his $5 million ranch. No drugs were found.
Pluze said Scott's latest claim names the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, the U.S. Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. It alleges
that her father was shot by authorities using improper search warrants in an
attempt to seize the exclusive ranch.
Susan Scott, one of three children from her father's second marriage, and her
family have also filed claims against the city and county of Los Angeles and the
state.
Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury concluded last week that
evidence used to obtain search warrants for the ranch may have been fabricated
by a Los Angeles County sheriff's investigator. In obtaining the warrants,
authorities had claimed marijuana was being cultivated on the ranch, but no
plants were found.
Bradbury said the Sheriff's Department, which led the raid, appeared to be
"motivated, at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the
government," a charge sheriff's officials have denied.
UPce 04/09/93 1556 Judge rules drug tax 'double jeopardy'
LOGANSPORT, Ind. (UPI) -- A Cass Circuit Court judge has ruled that a 1992
law allowing the state to prosecute drug dealers for tax evasion is double
jeopardy.
Judge Donald Leicht entered the ruling this week in a case filed against Gary
Elvers of Logansport. Elvers had already paid $12,784 in taxes on 46.6 grams of
marijuana found under his control.
In addition to ruling that the law allowing prosecution for not paying taxes
on illegal drugs represents double jeopardy, Leicht cited other constitutional
flaws with the law the went into effect in July 1992.
He said the tax violates a person's rights against self-incrimination and
violates a citizens rights to equal protection under the law because some people
are required to pay taxes on drugs and others are not.
The money is collected by the Indiana Department of Revenue, and since the
law took effect last summer the state has billed more than $60 million in taxes
for persons acquised of possessing illegal drugs. The IDR has collected
approximately $500,000 to date, said Larry McKee, spokesman for the Indiana
Department of Revenue.
Cass County Prosecutor Rick Maughmer said the order by Leicht does not affect
the county's criminal charges against Elvers for possession of marijuana, a
class D felony. The ruling does, however, effect the other felony charge pending
against Elvers -- failure to pay taxes on the marijuana.
RTw 04/09/93 0616 PHILIPPINE POLICE BURN MARIJUANA CROP
GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines, April 9, Reuter - Police on Wednesday raided a
marijuana plantation in the southern Philippines and burned 62 million pesos
($2.5 million) worth of plants they uprooted.
Moslem separatist rebels-turned bandits, who were believed to be running
the six-hectare (14.8-acre) plantation near General Santos city, battled police
raiders before escaping, said police superintendent Gerardo Alvarado on Friday.
There were no casualties in the 15-minute firefight.
Last month police seized and burned 80 million pesos ($3.2 million) worth
of marijuana in another village near this southern city.
REUTER RMR DF MH
UPwe 04/12/93 1832 Alleged drug traffickers kill six in Mexico
TIJUANA, Mexico (UPI) -- Gunmen burst into a house and shot six people dead
in an apparent quarrel beteen drug traffickers in the Mexican border city of
Tijuana over the weekend, news reports said Monday.
The Santos Valenzuela family was watching television in the Libertad
neighborhood of Tijuana, which borders San Diego, when four people, two of them
heavily armed, burst into the house, yelled "we have come for you to pay us" and
opened fire in the early morning hours Sunday, newspaper and broadcast reports
said.
Six people -- four of them in their 20s or late teens -- were killed in the
attack, police told reporters. A 7-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother were
injured, the news reports said.
Four of those killed also lived at least part of the time in San Diego, the
Mexico City newspaper El Universal said. It also said that two men were arrested
in San Diego after they were allegedly linked to the slayings by police who
stopped them for a traffic violation.
The Mexico City daily Excelsior said a brother of one of those killed
admitted the victims had been involved in drug trafficking, bringing the drugs
from the northwest Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Some members of the Santos Valenzuela family, Excelsior said, also allegedly
sold drugs secretly in the traditional food markets of Tijuana. Police said the
apparent motive for the slayings was related to drug trafficking activity.
Mexico remains a major source of marijuana and other drugs smuggled into the
United States, often through Tijuana, and is a major transshipment point for
Colombian cocaine also headed for the United States.
UPce 04/13/93 1801 Five indicted on drug charges
INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) -- Four Michigan men were among five people indicted on
federal drug charges Tuesday.
Billy Alex, 45, Jose Perez Montoya, 49, and Ronald Wilkins, 53, all of
Lansing, Mich., and Lino Alvarado, 44, of Metamoros, Mexico, were indicted on
charges of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute.
Alvarado also was charged with 27 counts of money laundering in connection
with a series of wire transfers.
Roy L. Brown, 21, of Detroit, was indicted on charges of possessing drugs and
a firearm.
U.S. Attorney Deborah J. Daniels said Brown was accused of possessing crack
cocaine and powder cocaine with intent to distribute and with carrying a firearm
in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
Dennis E. Gates, 36, of Newburgh, was indicted on multiple counts of tax
fraud and one count of wire tapping.
The government said the tax charges stem from income received from 1986
through 1989 when Gates operated construction businesses. Gates was charged with
both income tax evasion and failing to file tax returns.
The wire tapping charge involves allegations of secretly tape recording a
telephone conversation between two people involved in a domestic situation in
Evansville.
UPn 04/13/93 1411 Grenada drops drug charges against Pakistani cricket players
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- Police in the West Indies island of Grenada have
dropped drug charges against four Pakistan cricket players due to lack of
evidence, Secretary for the Pakistan Board of Control for Cricket Shahid Rafi
said Tuesday.
He said Grenada's director of public prosecution found the case unsuitable
for submission before the court, Rafi said.
Four members of the Pakistani cricket team currently touring the West Indies
were charged with constructive possession of marijuana Thursday.
They were under arrest for four hours and later released on bail.
The players -- captain Wasim Akram, his deputy Waqar Yunis, and bowlers Aqib
Javed and Mushtaq Ahmad -- denied the charges and said they were framed.
Rafi said the tour would continue. The board had earlier said it would cancel
the tour if the players were not cleared of the charges.
Rafi said the four showed great courage in agreeing to play despite "immense
psychological pressure."
Pakistan, the current world champion, played a three-day match against the
West Indies under-23 after the drug charges were brought against them, and won
it by 111 runs.
"They have shown great courage and extraordinary performance, which is a
testimony to their clear conscience," said Rafi.
He also said the board was considering action against the Grenada police. "We
are considering a proposal to bring liable charges against them for the kind of
damage they have done by defaming our players," he said.
"We are seeking legal advise from our attorneys in Grenada, and if we think
it is a fit case for liable, we will not let it go," he said.
APn 04/13/93 1418 Teens and Drugs-Glance
Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By The Associated Press
Results of a University of Michigan Institute for Social Research study of
drug use and attitudes toward drugs by eighth-and 12th-grade students in 1992
and comparisons with findings in the 1991 study.
Reported drug use by eighth-graders in 992:
--Marijuana-Hashish: 7.2 percent, up from 6.2 percent in 1991.
--Inhalants: 9.5 percent, up from 9 percent.
--LSD: 2.1 percent, up from 1.7 percent.
--Other hallucinogens: 1.1 percent, up from 0.7 percent.
--Cocaine: 1.5 percent, up from 1.1 percent.
--Crack: 0.9 percent, up from 0.7 percent.
Reported drug use by 12th-graders in 1992:
--Marijuana-Hashish: 21.9 percent, down from 23.9 percent.
--Inhalants: 6.2 percent, down from 6.6 percent.
--LSD: 5.6 percent, up from 5.2 percent.
--Other hallucinogens: 1.7 percent, down from 2 percent.
--Cocaine: 3.1 percent, down from 3.5 percent.
--Crack: unchanged at 1.5 percent.
Percentage of eighth-graders who disapprove of drug use:
--Marijuana once or twice: 82.1 percent, down from 84.6 percent.
--Marijuana occasionally: 88.1 percent, 89.5 percent.
--Marijuana regularly: 90.8 percent, 92.1 percent.
--Inhalants once or twice: 84 percent, down from 84.9 percent.
--Inhalants regularly: 90 percent, down from 90.6 percent.
--LSD: unavailable.
--Crack once or twice: 90.7 percent, down from 91.7 percent.
--Crack occasionally: 92.5 percent, down from 93.3 percent.
--Cocaine once or twice: 89.6 percent, down from 91.2 percent.
--Cocaine occasionally: 92.4 percent, down form 93.1 percent.
Percentage of 12th-graders who disapprove of drug use:
--Marijuana once or twice: 69.9 percent, up from 68.7 percent.
--Marijuana occasionally: 79.7 percent, up from 79.4 percent.
--Marijuana regularly: 90.1 percent, up from 89.3 percent.
--Inhalants: unavailable.
--LSD once or twice: 88.1 percent, down from 90.1 percent.
--LSD regularly: 95.5 percent, down from 96.4 percent.
--Crack once or twice: 93.1 percent, up from 92.1 percent.
--Crack occasionally: 95 percent, up from 94.2 percent.
--Cocaine once or twice: 89.4 percent, up from 88 percent.
--Cocaine occasionally: 93.4 percent, up from 93 percent.
UPma 04/13/93 1015 Brothers who grew pot for "religious reasons"
sentenced to probation
PITTSBURGH (UPI) -- Two Allegheny County brothers, who say they are ascetic
yogis and grew marijuana for health and religious reasons, will serve probations
sentences after pleading guilty to drug charges.
Nicholas Angelou, 41, of West Mifflin, was sentenced Monday to three years
probation and his brother, Thomas Angelou, 48, was given five years'
probation.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge James McGregror imposed the sentences
after Nicholas Angelou pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and Thomas
Angelou to growing marijuana and providing it to his brother.
Thomas Angelou said he and his brother are Hindu yogi ascetics and the use
of the drug is essential to their religious exercises and worship.
RTw 04/17/93 2239 HUNDREDS GATHER TO MARK LSD'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, Reuter - Several hundred advocates of
legalisation of drugs, devotees of counterculture, psychiatrists, pharmacists
and others gathered on Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of LSD.
The conference on the psychedelic drug drew more than 700 people to a
church in San Francisco, the city known for its drug culture during the U.S.
"Summer of Love" in 1968.
Some of those attending the conference wore brightly dyed T-shirts and
burned incense. The church was brimming with stands full of psychedelic and
Native American art, books on drugs, buttons and leaflets. A cafe sold espresso
drinks next to a banner depicting a marijuana leaf.
Music blared and discussion was intense.
"This is the coming out of the psychedelic community after a decade of
severe repression," said Dale Gieringer of a California group that was one of
three organising the conference and advocates reform of drug laws.
"We're here to make our presence known and to shed truth and light on this
issue," Gieringer said.
The conference, entitled "Psychedelics and Cannabis: Medicine, Spirituality
and Policy," advocated the use of psychedelic drugs in medicine and religion.
Proceeds are to benefit government-approved research on drugs and legal reform,
said Gieringer.
The Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann invented lysergic acid diethylamide,
known as LSD or "acid," at the Sandoz Co in Basle, Switzerland, 50 years ago.
"It's an important date," said Laura Huxley, the wife of the late British
novelist Aldous Huxley, whose book "Brave New World" talked about a futuristic
society where drug use was common.
"It was a revolution psychologically for many people," said Huxley,
visiting the conference from Los Angeles. Her husband, who lived in California
after 1937, in addition to writing studied the effects of hallucinatory drugs.
REUTER STR SR ZM
RTw 04/18/93 2243 NEXT TRAIN AT PLATFORM ONE THE DISCO EXPRESS
By Patrick Lannin
BRUSSELS, April 19, Reuter - For the dedicated ravers on the disco express,
the destination doesn't matter -- what counts most is that they can get there
dancing.
Leaving Brussels every month, the disco train is a nightclub on wheels,
taking a mixed bag of party-seekers to Amsterdam.
"The main idea was to give a party on a train and where we were going was
not that important," said Johan Van Peteghem, who created the disco express. "It
was just a question of moving on the train, that's a lot of fun."
Van Peteghem, a self-confessed train maniac, is an expert in organising
train-centred events.
For the disco express, he takes over the entire railway carriage of a
normal Brussels-Amsterdam train and transforms it into a disco, with a full
sound-system, psychedelic-printed material on the ceiling and posters on the
windows.
It leaves Brussels South station at nine o'clock in the evening and arrives
in Amsterdam three hours later. Most of the people on board head for the
ultra-fashionable "It" disco.
"It's a different way to go out, you don't have to drive the car and you
meet a lot of different people," said a man who called himself Cella Tubex and
was dressed in skimpy black shorts, a flowing black nylon shirt and a spiked dog
collar round his neck.
The train attracts gay men and heterosexuals in equal numbers and the
emphasis is on fast, hypnotic "house" music, ideal for the dedicated and
energetic passengers.
The heady atmosphere is heightened as the carriage can only fit 60 people,
creating a tight squeeze as they dance in the narrow strip between the seats and
sometimes on the seats themselves.
As the train makes its way through the stations, people on the platforms
stare open-mouthed as the disco carriage glides past with the party-goers
hanging out of the windows, shouting and waving.
"It's very sexy and exciting and you can be what you want," said Rony
Potvliege, dressed in a tight rubber shirt, shorts and cowboy boots. This was
the third time he had taken the train and was gyrating freely, hanging off the
luggage racks.
"I'm an exhibitionist, I sometimes go right to the limit, go totally nude,"
he added.
Two years ago Van Peteghem helped put together the world's longest train of
70 carriages and plans to organise a disco train to Berlin.
"It's the nostalgia of trains, the importance of trains during history, the
communication they bring with them, I think those are the reasons why I am a
train freak," he said.
The disco train got some bad press recently, with one Belgian daily
newspaper calling it decadent and alleging that it was rife with drugs.
"I sometimes ask the railway police to get on in plainclothes and show that
people are not allowed to take drugs with them. But the problem is that one
third of the way further on, it's authorised," Van Peteghem added.
Laws on possession and use of soft drugs such as marijuana are very lenient
in the Netherlands. But in Belgium it is still a criminal offence.
"I say to the people, don't take it with you because it's prohibited and
you can get punished," Van Peterghem added.
After dancing and drinking all night, the mood is more relaxed on the
return journey. Van Peterghem provides classical music with coffee and
croissants.
But dedicated dancers are never still for long. Just one hour after
departure, the house music is back on the turntable and the manic gyrations
start again -- all the way back to Brussels.
REUTER LAN VB RDW
APn 04/19/93 0008 Drug Money
Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By CHET BROKAW
Associated Press Writer
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Richard Lyle Austin pleaded guilty to a drug charge and
did his time, spending about a year in prison. But when he got out, he couldn't
return to his small-town auto body shop.
The government had seized and sold it.
Austin, who now repairs cars for someone else, wants the federal government
to return the money it made selling his shop and mobile home after he admitted
to possessing cocaine and intending to sell it. His case comes before the U.S.
Supreme Court on Tuesday.
His attorney, Richard Johnson, will argue that the seizure and sale violated
the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment and excessive fines.
In doing so, Johnson will be asking the justices to decide whether the Eighth
Amendment thus limits the amount of money and property the government can seize
from convicted drug dealers. If it does, he wants the court to set a formula for
making the seizures proportional to the crime's severity.
"From the general public's point of view, the issue is whether there should
be some check or some guard against unchecked government seizure of property in
these cases," Johnson said.
Austin refuses to talk to reporters. He is shy and wants only to get on with
his life, his lawyer said.
"He's certainly not back into doing any illegal activity or anything like
that," Johnson said.
The practice that allowed the government to take Austin's home and enterprise
was intended to discourage drug dealing by denying dealers profits from illegal
activities. Based on laws enacted in the 1970s, it was expanded in the mid-1980s
to even include such property as cars.
But the money made from such forfeitures also provides funds to federal,
state and local law enforcment agencies fighting the illicit drug trade. In
fiscal 1990, the U.S. Justice Department collected $460 million from forfeitures
in drug cases and other crimes.
Austin's appeal gives the Supreme Court its first chance to decide whether
the ban on excessive punishment applies to civil fines, said Alexandria, Va.,
attorney David Smith, who filed arguments in Austin's support for the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
The outcome could apply to a wide range of financial penalties, such as those
for environmental violations, Smith said.
"There are other cases where people have lost their cars just for possessing
a joint of marijuana for their personal use," he added.
Austin was arrested in June 1990 after police accused him of selling 2 grams
of cocaine at his shop in Garretson near Sioux Falls in eastern South Dakota.
When officers searched his mobile home and shop, they found cocaine, marijuana,
a gun, cash and items often used in selling or using drugs.
Austin pleaded guilty in state court to possessing cocaine for sale and was
sentenced to seven years in prison. Officials obtained a federal judge's
approval to take his home and business, which were valued at $38,000.
The action was upheld last May by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
which ruled that the government had shown that Austin was dealing drugs from his
home and business.
The appellate court also said the constitutional ban on excessive punishment
didn't apply because it was a civil, not criminal, case. The government was
acting against property, not a person, the court said.
But on a cautionary note, the court added: "We are troubled by the
government's view that any property, whether it be a hobo's hovel or the Empire
State Building, can be seized by the government because the owner, regardless of
his or her past criminal record, engages in a single drug transaction."
Government lawyers argue that forfeiture of property is not punishment,
however.
State Attorney General Mark Barnett said he supports the forfeiture law
because it takes profits from drug dealers and provides money for drug law
enforcement.
APn 04/19/93 1025 Scotus-Reservation Crimes
Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By RICHARD CARELLI
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court today agreed to decide whether Utah
authorities may prosecute Indians for crimes committed on the Uintah and Ouray
Reservation in Utah.
The justices said they will resolve conflicting rulings by the Utah Supreme
Court and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the state's power to
prosecute such crimes.
At issue is whether large portions of the Ute Indian Tribe's reservation is
"Indian country" where state officials lack prosecution authority over Indians.
Robert Hagen was arrested and charged by state authorities with selling
marijuana out of his home in Myton, Utah. The town is located within the
reservation's boundaries as set when it was created in 1861.
Hagen originally pleaded guilty but later withdrew the plea and argued that
the state lacked the power to prosecute him because he is an Indian who was
arrested for on-reservation conduct.
The Utah Supreme Court refused to let Hagen withdraw his plea, ruling that
federal laws passed in 1902 and 1905 had reduced the size of the Ute tribe's
reservation, and that Myton now is located outside the reservation's boundaries.
Therefore, the state court said, Hagen could be prosecuted by state
authorities.
The 10th Circuit court had reached the opposite conclusion about the
reservation's current boundaries and the state's authority to prosecute crimes
committee in Myton by Indians.
So state officials did not oppose Hagen's appeal to the nation's highest
court.
Asked by the high court for their views, Justice Department lawyers said the
state Supreme Court ruling in Hagen's case "incorrectly applies the principles
... for determining when an act of Congress will be held to have diminished an
Indian reservation."
No matter what the justices rule, their decision ultimately may not help
Hagen.
He claims to be a member of the Little Shell Tribe of the Chippewa Indians,
but the Little Shell Tribe is not federally recognized.
"Indian status for jurisdictional purposes is dependent upon some affiliation
with a federally recognized Indian tribe or entity," Justice Department lawyers
said. "For that reason, (Hagen's) status apparently would not bar the exercise
of state jurisdiction even if, as we submit, his offense did occur in Indian
country."
The Utah Supreme Court never decided Hagen's asserted status as an Indian.
Four states joined in a friend-of-the-court brief to side with Utah in the
dispute and urged the justices to uphold the state court's ruling. Those states
are California, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington.
The Ute tribe urged the justices to turn down the appeal, noting that a
federal trial judge already has the same issues under study in a lawsuit filed
against the state.
The case is Hagen vs. Utah, 92-6281.
[End]
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