Pot times July 16, 2005
Witness Sticks To His Testimony
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1121/a08.htmlNewshawk: Humphrey Ploughjogger
Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 WITNESS STICKS TO HIS TESTIMONY
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Contact:
mailto:letters@berkshireeagle.com>letters@berkshireeagle.com
Website: <http://www.berkshireeagle.com/>http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Address: PO Box 1171, Pittsfield, MA 01202
Fax: (413) 499-3419
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc
Author: Ellen G. Lahr, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm
(Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm
(Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm
(Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199
(Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217
(Drug-Free Zones)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225
(Students - United States)
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1091/a12.html
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n882/a04.html
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n779/a04.html
PITTSFIELD -- The prosecution in the case of an Otis teen accused of selling
drugs in a Great Barrington school zone, one of 17 cases in which young people
are facing mandatory jail time, rested yesterday with a final effort by the
defense to discredit the case's key police witness. Officer Felix Aguirre,
on redirect examination by Prosecutor Richard Locke, repeatedly stated that Kyle
Sawin, 18, appeared calm, easygoing and sober when he made his daylight deals to
sell small bags on three occasions last summer in and around the Taconic Lumber
parking lot.
Defense attorney Judith Knight has indicated that she will present testimony
that Sawin was an impressionable teen who was pressured heavily by Aguirre to
sell marijuana last year; she has also suggested that she'll explore a claim
made by another drug sweep defendant that Aguirre smoked marijuana and bought
beer for the teens.
Yesterday, Knight tried to ask Aguirre if he had ever used marijuana, but
prosecutor Richard Locke jumped to his feet with an outraged objection, which
was sustained by Judge John A. Agostini. Aguirre had begun to say no
before Knight's questioning was shut down.
Whether Knight intends to introduce such evidence from other witnesses when she
begins her case Monday remains to be seen.
Another young man arrested in last year's sting operation, Mitchell Lawrence,
signed an affidavit in a pretrial motion for his own case, stating that he'd
seen Aguirre smoke marijuana and buy beer for young people. Aguirre, 29, a
seven-year undercover officer for both Springfield and Pittsfield Police, has
signed his own affidavit denying the claim. Yesterday, Mitchell's lawyer,
Richard Simon, was in court watching the proceedings, but declined to comment on
whether his client would testify against Aguirre. Aguirre also told Knight
that, because he was older than most of the teens he was socializing with last
summer, many times he was asked to buy alcohol and would always decline.
He told them he did not have identification on him, he told the jury.
Knight's questions suggesting that Aguirre "set up" purchases in the
Taconic parking lot did not withstand his replies: Aguirre said he went to the
parking lot because that's where the drug dealers were believed to be. But
he said he would meet them wherever they wanted to make his transactions.
"I made a deal inside 87 Railroad St., inside the tunnel, behind Berkshire
Bank, on Elm Street," he said of the adjacent areas where he was asked to
go. The locations all happened to be within 1,000 feet of either the Great
Barrington Co-operative Pre-School and/or Searles/Bryant Elementary School.
"Why didn't you pick the spots?" Knight asked Aguirre.
"Because that would be entrapment," said Aguirre, referring to a form
of police misconduct that Knight intends to raise in Sawin's defense.
Prosecution witnesses have already established that the Taconic parking lot was
a long-standing in-town hangout for young people, many of whom were buying and
selling drugs in broad daylight.
Knight said yesterday that, when she begins her case Monday, quite a different
picture will emerge of both Aguirre and Sawin. "I expect my case will
challenge Aguirre's credibility, and that the jury will see a whole other side
to Kyle Sawin and the way things were handled in that parking lot," said
Knight after testimony concluded yesterday. She has been leading up to a
defense of entrapment, in which she intends to show that Sawin would not have
dealt drugs to Aguirre were it not for his vulnerability, his desire to be liked
and his problem with marijuana. Other lawyers watching the case say the
entrapment defense is a difficult one to employ, requiring an extremely
incorruptible defendant. The summer-long drug investigation concluded
Sept. 17 when police began arresting numerous young people who had sold
drugs to Aguirre, starting in June 2004. A total of 18 were nabbed for
hand-to-hand sales of marijuana, cocaine, ketamine and Ecstasy. Seventeen
defendants were indicted in Superior Court with school-zone drug violations.
Sawin is one of seven whose cases have been taken up by Concerned Citizens for
Appropriate Justice, a group organized to protest District Attorney David F.
Capeless' use of the school-zone drug law to prosecute young people with no
prior records and small marijuana sales. If convicted, the defendants face
mandatory jail time.
In Sawin's case, the testimony of Aguirre and four surveillance police officers
and a land surveyor has appeared to nail down the whereabouts of the drug deals,
all of which were measured within 1,000 feet of two local schools on the
opposite side of Main Street.
Each day, the courtroom has picked up more spectators -- lawyers representing
other defendants whose cases are looming -- and members of the citizens' group.
Stephen Picheny of Great Barrington, a member of the group, stopped in court
yesterday as the day concluded.
"I'm just outraged," he said. "I believe these people did
something wrong, but two years in prison is an outrage. As a concerned
citizen and parent of teens, I think this is outrageous.
"Look at this poor kid," said Picheny, as Sawin mingled with his
parents, Darryl and Laurie Sawin of Otis.
Sawin is charged with selling three "eighth-ounce" plastic bags of
marijuana to Aquirre on three occasions on June 30, July 6 and Sept. 3,
2004. He also faces three charges of violating drug laws within a school
zone.
