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News (Media Awareness Project) - US CO: Bookstore Battles Cops' Request For Sales Records
Title:US CO: Bookstore Battles Cops' Request For Sales Records
Published On:2000-11-26
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Fetched On:2008-09-03 01:27:29
BOOKSTORE BATTLES COPS' REQUEST FOR SALES RECORDS

Attempt To Tie Buyers To Meth Lab

In the course of raiding an illegal methamphetamine laboratory in a trailer
home last March in the Denver suburb of Thornton, agents of a local drug
task force found two books, "Advanced Techniques of Clandestine Psychedelic
and Amphetamine Manufacture," by an author named Uncle Fester, and "The
Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories," by Jack B.
Nimble.

Outside the trailer, the agents found an envelope from one of Denver's most
cherished retailers, the Tattered Cover Bookstore, in which they believe
the books were mailed to one of the occupants.

Investigators believe that if they can tie up one loose end -- confirming
that the books were received by the person named on the envelope -- they
can be certain the recipient was the laboratory owner and they can arrest
him. Lt. Lori Moriarty, the task force commander, said that would "turn a
probable-cause case into proof beyond reasonable doubt."

And the surest way to do that, Moriarty added, is by retrieving the sales
record from Tattered Cover, which investigators have tried through a search
warrant.

But using sale receipts of books to solve a crime has raised concerns among
booksellers, publishers and privacy groups, who are watching the case
closely for its implications on First Amendment rights of free speech and
privacy. Because of this, the store owner, Joyce Meskis, has refused to
comply with the warrant, arguing that customers, even suspected felons,
have a right to privacy no matter the subject of the books they buy.

"This is about access to private records of the book-buying public," Meskis
said in her office at the store. "If buyers thought that their records
would be turned over to the government, it would have a chilling effect on
what they buy and what they read."

Moriarty said investigators had identified six suspects in the case, four
of whom they believe lived in the trailer at the time of the raid and were
later evicted. Only one of the six was arrested, on a weapons charge, but
the other five are free. Because of a lack of other evidence, Moriarty
said, investigators are not certain which of the suspects actually owned
the illegal laboratory.

That is why they need the sales records, she said, to start what
investigators believe could be a string of arrests. None of the suspects
have been identified by the authorities.

But Meskis' lawyer, Daniel N. Recht, said the search warrant, which
initially sought all records over a 30-day period involving the buyer of
the two books, amounted to nothing more than "a fishing expedition" that
would prove little even if records confirmed that the books had arrived in
the envelope.

Meskis, offering a rationale for the purchase of sensitive or controversial
material, said, "Just because I buy material on the Third Reich doesn't
make me a Nazi skinhead."

Recht won a temporary restraining order to stop the search. A hearing
followed, and last month Colorado District Court Judge J. Stephen Phillips
ruled that the government's request for a month of records was too broad.
But the judge said investigators had a right to see any records that would
confirm that one of the suspects was the buyer of the two books.

Last week, Recht filed an appeal of Phillips' ruling with the Colorado
Court of Appeals.

Until now, the most prominent case involving efforts to obtain bookstore
records involved Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating
President Clinton, who used a subpoena in 1998 in an effort to learn what
books Monica Lewinsky had bought from Kramerbooks & Afterwords in
Washington. Starr's effort was blocked when a federal judge ruled the
request was too broad, and later, it became moot when Lewinsky agreed to
cooperate with Starr's office.

Theresa Chmara, counsel for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free
Expression, a nonprofit group in Washington, said a case similar to the one
here was under way near Kansas City, Kan., where the authorities were
trying to obtain records of sales from three Borders bookstores in a drug
investigation.

"It all comes down to a First Amendment issue, the right to free speech,
the right to receive information," Chmara said of all three cases. "There
may be lots of reasons people read books. There also may be lots of people
who read these two books who never come near an amphetamine lab."

Lawyers for the task force are arguing that the case has nothing to do with
First Amendment issues. In court papers, they argued that investigators
have no interest in the suspect's "thoughts or reading materials, per se."

"But they are interested," the lawyers wrote, "in conclusively establishing
the identity of the person who was operating a meth lab -- an activity
which is neither legal nor protected under the First or any other
constitutional amendment."

Meskis said the public reaction to her legal stance had been overwhelming,
with hundreds of phone calls and e-mail messages urging her to stand firm.

"Since the Kramerbooks case," she said, "we have learned as booksellers
that the First Amendment needs to be protected. We know now that we have
options, and we just don't turn over anything without going through the
entire process."
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