Pubdate: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2001 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: Howard Pankratz BOOK BUYERS' PRIVACY GOES BEFORE JUSTICES Wednesday, December 05, 2001 - In a case that has received national attention, the Colorado Supreme Court today will be asked whether a Denver bookstore must reveal what a judge calls "highly important" evidence concerning an illegal methamphetamine lab. The North Metro (drug) Task Force believes the Tattered Cover bookstore can provide the name of the person who allegedly ran the lab from an Adams County trailer raided in March 2000. The day before the raid, investigators found a Tattered Cover mailer envelope containing an invoice number in a garbage can outside the trailer. Inside the trailer were two books, "Advanced Techniques of Clandestine Psychedelic and Amphetamine Manufacture" and "The Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories." Police said the books fit into the Tattered Cover envelope and the bookstore stocked the books. Although the mailer was addressed to the trailer, it wasn't sent to a specific individual. Investigators believed the invoice would pinpoint the lab operator. The bookstore has refused to provide the information and has received national support. A number of groups - including the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Booksellers Foundation and the American Library Association - have filed briefs with the Colorado Supreme Court. They say that to force the Tattered Cover to reveal the purchaser's name would trample on constitutionally protected First Amendment and privacy rights. Lawyer Dan Recht, who represents the bookstore, and Bruce Jones, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, said the case is nationally significant. Andy Nathan, who represents the task force, said this is the type of access law enforcement needs to do its job. "This case is of potentially great significance because it presents the specter of the government being able to find out about somebody's reading habits," Jones said. Recht said that Joyce Meskis, who owns Tattered Cover, believes that if the ruling goes against the store, it could have "a chilling effect on book buyers across the country." Recht noted that the bookstore has never disclosed whether the books that were in the envelope had anything to do with drugs. He said the books found in the trailer were new and did not have Tattered Cover stickers on them, "which almost every new Tattered Cover book has." On Oct. 28, 2000, Denver District Judge Stephen Phillips ordered the bookstore to turn over the name of the purchaser and the titles of the books mailed in the envelope. Phillips said he was requiring disclosure because it is important that the offender be accurately identified and because "who purchased the "how to' books is a highly important piece of evidence." But Recht claims a bookstore can be forced to turn over such information only if police have a "compelling need" for it. Here, he said, they don't. "They have lots of other ways of finding out who ran this methamphetamine lab. There were seven different witnesses they should have and could have interviewed," Recht said. But Nathan said suspects have a right to remain silent and that before any are questioned investigators need to have as much information as possible, including who ordered the books. "People who are experts in investigating meth lab crimes know that this evidence is important before determining who the primary suspect is and who they will interview," Nathan said. "If an investigator gets one shot (at an interview), he's got to know more than the suspect to have any possibility of success." Nathan said it is equally important to clear people who had nothing to do with the meth lab. Six or seven individuals were connected to the trailer. Finding out who actually ordered the books could result in some of the suspects being cleared, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth