Pubdate: Tue, 13 Sep 2005
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Author: Ellen G. Lahr, Berkshire Eagle Staff

SAWIN CASE RETURNS

PITTSFIELD - The school-zone drug-dealing case against Kyle Sawin of Otis, 
whose first court case ended with a hung jury in July, will begin today 
with jury selection for the new trial in Superior Court.

After the mistrial, District Attorney David F. Capeless said he intended to 
retry during the September session. Sawin's case is one of several that 
have sparked a prolonged critique of Capeless.

Judge John A. Agostini, who presided over the original trial, will hear the 
case again.

Sawin, 18, is charged with two counts of selling marijuana to an undercover 
police officer on three occasions in the summer of 2004; he also faces 
three counts of committing a drug offense in a school zone, which carries a 
minimum mandatory two-year jail term.

The first trial lasted eight days. Defense attorney Judith C. Knight raised 
an entrapment defense, which questioned the veracity of the undercover 
officer involved in the drug buys with Sawin and with 17 others who were 
allegedly making deals in and around the Taconic parking lot in Great 
Barrington last summer. She also challenged the testimony of two other 
young men charged in the investigation last year, who are cooperating with 
the prosecution in hopes of having their own charges reduced.

On the stand, her client admitted to the drug sales but said that he felt 
he was being harassed and coerced by the police officer involved. Several 
police officers testified regarding drug activity in the parking lot, and 
emphasized their steady surveillance of the undercover officer as he 
purchased drugs from Sawin.

The officer's purchases ranged from marijuana to cocaine to ecstasy and 
ketamine over the course of the summer, but deals with Sawin involved 
marijuana only. A group of South County residents has organized to protest 
Capeless' uniform use of the school-zone charge for all defendants, saying 
that those with marijuana sales and no prior records, such as Sawin and six 
others, should be spared the school-zone charge and its mandatory jail 
time. Capeless' critics, organized under a group called Concerned Citizens 
for Appropriate Justice, have held public protests and spent thousands on 
newspaper advertisements and, now, a billboard advertisement in Great 
Barrington, as well  as numerous letters to the editor.

Still others have come to Capeless' defense with letters and a petition 
drive, saying that the district attorney should aggressively enforce the 
law without favor, and that if citizens oppose his tactics, they should 
initiate changes in the school-zone drug law itself.

Jury selection in the case is set to begin today in Superior Court; the 
trial could last until sometime next week.

Prosecutors Richard Locke and Paul Caccaviello handled the case in July on 
behalf of Capeless.
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