TATTERED COVER'S RECORDS AT CENTER OF PRIVACY CASE

A Denver district court judge this week will decide whether drug detectives
can search bookstore records in what could become a landmark privacy case.

Joyce Meskis, owner of Tattered Cover Book Store, obtained a temporary
restraining order to keep the North Metro Drug Task Force from searching
her business records that would say who bought two books about making
methamphetamine.

District Judge J. Stephen Phillips will decide whether Meskis can make the
order permanent or whether task force detectives can use store records to
prove who was illegally making methamphetamine at an Adams County home that
was frequented by a number of people.

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent subpoenaed the bookstore in March
for the titles and nature of any books that were shipped to the suspect in
the case.

Tattered Cover vowed to fight the subpoena and the task force declined to
pursue it.

In April, members of the North Metro Drug Task Force sought a search
warrant for the store but were turned down by Adams County Deputy District
Attorney Fran Wasserman.

They later were able to get one through a Denver court with help from the
Denver district attorney's office.

Tattered Cover argued that allowing the search would infringe on First
Amendment rights of its customers regarding what they can read. Fifteen
literary groups have filed court documents in support of the store's
efforts to keep the records private.

Investigators found the books inside a bedroom of a suspect believed to be
involved in making methamphetamine in a laboratory in the house. Two other
people were inside the home at the time of the search.