Pubdate: Fri, 19 May 2006
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Copyright: 2006 Indianapolis Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.indystar.com/help/contact/letters.html
Website: http://www.starnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/210
Author: Vic Ryckaert
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

BIDS ON SEIZED CAR COLLECTION WILL HAVE TO WAIT

Car buffs will have to wait at least a year before the state auctions 
off more than 35 vehicles police seized this week from a duo accused 
of selling marijuana for more than 25 years.

The state must go through a civil court process before it can legally 
take possession of the property police say.

Clarence Deberry and his ex-wife amassed during the decades they 
spent supplying pot to Indiana drug dealers.

With all the legal paperwork and appeals, State Police 1st Sgt. Dave 
Busten said any auction is probably a year or two away.

At an age when many people retire, police said the Deberrys sold 
hundreds of pounds of marijuana a week. Investigators ended the drug 
sales operation and seized more than $1 million in classic cars, cash 
and other property. Troopers said Deberry, 69, and his ex-wife Phoebe 
Deberry, 59, sold 26 pounds of marijuana to an undercover police 
officer during a four-month investigation.

"This is certainly no way to supplement Social Security," said Marion 
County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi.

The Deberrys lived together in a home in the 300 block of South 
Lockburn Street on the city's Westside. Police said they were among 
the biggest dealers in the state and spent much of their profit on 
automobiles. The car collection includes a 1957 Chevrolet, a 1967 
Corvette, a 1999 Plymouth Prowler, a 1929 Ford Model A and a 2003 
Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle. The couple stored the vehicles in a 
warehouse on the Westside at Airport Expressway and Holt Road, where 
many had a thick layer of dust.

Officers also seized more than 40 pounds of marijuana, which Indiana 
State Police Maj. Larry Turner said was thought to have been smuggled 
in from Mexico. Police would not say how they came to suspect the two 
were selling drugs.

The Deberrys owned two homes and a vacant lot in Marion County, 
police said. Last month, investigators said, the Deberrys paid 
$274,900 in cash for a third home on eight acres in the 9500 block of 
Cooney Road, Mooresville. Clarence Deberry bragged to an undercover 
officer about the cash he'd earned selling pot, according to 
documents filed Thursday in Marion Superior Court. In March, Deberry 
told the officer he had several customers who bought 25 to 30 pounds 
of pot a week and that he supplied one costumer with 250 pounds of 
the drug each week.

"We're always grateful for criminals who like to talk," Brizzi said.

Clarence Deberry has not filed an income tax return for 10 years, 
according to court records.

More arrests may follow as investigators sort through evidence and 
follow other leads, but police and prosecutors were confident the 
Deberrys sat at the top of this supply chain. Clarence Deberry was 
charged Thursday with dealing marijuana and other crimes in Marion, 
Hancock and Morgan counties.

He is being held in the Morgan County Jail. Phoebe Deberry faces a 
single felony drug charge in Marion County and is being held in the 
Marion County Jail. Both have bonds set at $1 million. Morgan County 
Prosecutor Steve Sonnega bemoaned the fact that the most serious 
charge prosecutors can file, dealing marijuana, carries a maximum 
penalty of eight years in prison. "That's the law in Indiana," 
Sonnega said. "We are basically filing the most serious charges we can."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman