CONDE WORKING ON DEAL TO MOVE TO BELIZE

ALBANY - A deal was struck Thursday but won't be finalized until next week
that will result in six criminal charges being dismissed against marijuana
activist and Harrisburg lumberyard owner Bill Conde, who will serve a
five-year term of self-imposed exile in the Central American country of Belize.

Conde, 58, went to court Thursday expecting the agreement to be approved by
Linn County Circuit Judge Carol Bispham, but instead sat for a half-hour in
an empty courtroom while his attorney and a prosecutor worked out details
with the judge in her chambers.

They let me go; I'm going," Conde said as he waited. "But it's a real mixed
bag. I'm leaving behind 30 years of unfinished work, and unfinished activism."

Bispham finally called the settlement hearing into session in open court,
only to tell Conde that the legal agreement is being revised and she will
"consider the proposals as we have discussed" after the document is
completed and submitted to her next week.

But Conde's lawyer, Brian Michaels of Eugene, said after the brief court
session that nothing has changed, except that the written agreement will be
expanded from two pages to four.

"It's basically just language," Michaels said. "In the end, all of the
charges against Mr. Conde will be dismissed, and he will be living and
doing business in Belize."

Conde is currently serving a five-year term of supervised probation -
meaning he has to report regularly to a probation officer - after being
convicted in a June jury trial of abetting delivery of a controlled
substance and hindering prosecution in 1999 during the World Hemp Festival,
an annual three-day event at his redwood lumberyard.

Under terms of the deal being worked out, his probationary term will be
changed to an unsupervised status so that he can leave the state and move
to Belize.

Conde will then drop an appeal of the convictions as well as a lawsuit he
filed against the county, and prosecutors will dismiss six pending charges,
including four felonies: frequenting a place where controlled substances
are used, endangering the welfare of a minor, delivery of a controlled
substance and hindering prosecution. Those charges relate to events held at
his lumberyard in 1998 and 1999.

After five years, Conde will be able to return to Oregon without
consequence. However, if he returns before five years without the judge's
permission, his unfinished term of supervised probation will be reinstated.

Conde is trying to sell the lumberyard he has operated since 1973 -
originally located in Cottage Grove and now near the Harrisburg exit off
Interstate 5 - and had his final day in business last week. Beginning at 10
a.m. Saturday, he will attempt to auction off all remaining items at the
lumberyard, from office furniture to tools to unsold redwood lumber.

"We even have a 22-foot joint, man," he said. "We used it in parades and
stuff."

Conde's 24-year-old wife, Ruby, is a native of Belize and is waiting for
him there with the couple's three children.