Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jun 2003
Source: Daily News (KY)
Copyright: 2003 News Publishing LLC
Contact:  http://www.bgdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1218
Author: Robyn L. Minor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

FACTORS FOR METH CHARGES TIGHTENED

Court Rules All Ingredients Must Be Found To Support Felony Of Manufacturing

A state Supreme Court ruling involving the manufacturing of methamphetamine 
is probably going to make the difference between serving 20 years in prison 
or five. A majority of the court struck down a statute that allowed police 
to charge people with manufacturing when they had most of the ingredients 
of meth - many of them common household items such as coffee filters, 
batteries and Sudafed.

"Now police would have to catch them in the act of cooking meth to charge 
them with manufacturing," Warren Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Wilson said. 
"This means we are going to have to go back and review all of our pending 
cases and see if they are mere ingredients cases."

The charges, however, won't be dismissed; they can be changed to attempted 
manufacturing, as long as prosecutors can show intent.

The difference, Wilson said, is a Class B felony for manufacturing, which 
comes with a prison term of 10 to 20 years in prison, or a Class D felony 
for attempted manufacturing, accompanied by one to five years in prison.

There is a question of how frequently law enforcement will be able to make 
a manufacturing charge, since it's not too common for a person to have all 
of the ingredients to make meth.

"The trend is sort of like a meth cook potluck where each person brings 
some of the ingredients; they put them together and then split the 
product," Wilson said.

The only time all of the ingredients would be together would be when a cook 
was going on, putting law enforcement in a much more dangerous position 
because of the harmful fumes and volatility of the items being used, he said.

"This just makes our job a lot harder," said Tommy Loving, director of the 
Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force. "We already have enough road 
blocks as it is."

Loving said officers will continue to try to catch criminals in the act and 
may seek help from federal courts until it is clear how to handle state 
charges.

He will talk with Wilson today about pending cases and plans to talk with 
House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, to see what changes can be 
made in law to make it easier to charge meth producers.

Loving said he expects that a review of cases will mean that some meth 
producers will be back on the streets much quicker.

Thursday's ruling ordered a new trial for Ronald Kotila, who was convicted 
in 1999 in Pulaski County on a meth manufacturing charge in 1999.

Kotila had possession of many of the items needed for a meth lab, but he 
did not have two essential ingredients - anhydrous ammonia and muriatic 
acid. The pertinent Kentucky statute specifies that a suspect must possess 
"the chemicals or equipment for the manufacture of methamphetamine."

"The presence of the article 'the' is significant because, grammatically 
speaking, possession of some but not all of the chemicals or equipment does 
not satisfy the statutory language," the court said in an unsigned opinion.

Simpson case - pardons

In another case with local interest, the court said the governor's power to 
grant pardons includes partial or conditional pardons.

The ruling was from a Simpson County criminal case in which a juror with a 
felony conviction on his record had some of his civil rights restored by 
Gov. Paul Patton in 1997.

The court noted that Patton's order for James Stanley specifically restored 
his rights to vote and hold public office. Nothing was said about jury service.

The Court of Appeals ruled that Patton's order restored Stanley to "full 
and complete rights of citizenship." The Supreme Court disagreed. The 
upshot of the ruling is that Terry Anderson, convicted of assault by the 
jury that included Stanley, is to get a new trial in Simpson County Circuit 
Court.

- - The Associated Press contributed information for this article.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom