JUDGE CALLS DRUG WAR AN 'EXERCISE IN FUTILITY'

U.S. District Judge James Jarvis told U.S. Attorney David Folmar last week
that his efforts to prosecute cases didn't seem to be doing any good in the
overall war on drugs. "It's an exercise in futility," the judge said after
presiding over his seventh hearing of the day that involved drug dealing or
some form of drug use.

Folmar said statements from Steven A. Neely that there's still a lot of
cocaine out there disturbed him.

"I'm indicting every case that comes through the door," Folmar told Jarvis.

"It's not doing any good," Jarvis noted. "You're working night and day.
It's not our fault. We've put them all in jail, and it's not stopping it."

The judge's comments came after he sentenced Neely to a year and four
months in prison, a $500 fine and five years of supervised release on a
drug offense.

"Maybe people will figure it out," Jarvis said. "It's ruining them and
hurting the country."

Jarvis told a Knoxville man last week that he was surprised the man was
involved with crack cocaine at his age.

"I believe you're the oldest person I know of involved in crack cocaine,"
Jarvis told Wallace Edward Isom, 64. "Most your age are dead." Isom, a
retiree who said he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, pleaded
guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute 5 grams or
more of crack.

Isom admitted to the Knoxville Police Department on Dec. 12 that he had
"been working the block" in the Five Points area of Martin Luther King Jr.
Avenue and Spruce Street for about two years, according to his plea
agreement papers.

The officers found 10.9 grams of crack in Isom's pockets after receiving
information that an individual was selling drugs in the area, the papers
state. They found 13 grams of crack in Isom's vehicle July 17 at the same
location. Isom, who will remain free on a $20,000 bond pending a later
sentencing, faces up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine on each count.

A convicted kidnapper already facing murder charges has pleaded innocent to
unrelated federal armed robbery and gun charges. George Willie Buford,
aliases Ya-Insaan Hetep and "Sandman," 34, entered the innocent pleas last
week before U.S. Magistrate Thomas Phillips to seven counts of armed
robbery of a business, seven counts of using a .44-caliber revolver during
the commission of a robbery and one count of being a felon in possession of
a firearm.

The robberies, according to the indictment, occurred over a week's period
in June 1998. The businesses included gas stations, convenience stores and
fast-food restaurants.

Phillips set trial for Nov. 7. Buford, who has kidnapping and aggravated
assault convictions, is also set for trial Dec. 11 in Knox County Criminal
Court on first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery charges
stemming from the April 19, 1998, shooting death of Dennis Ray King, 33,
according to court records.

Buford will remain in custody pending trial on the federal charges.

A resident alien from Mexico admitted last week in court papers to breaking
down 50 to 60 pounds of marijuana at his Blaine residence on three
different occasions.

Isidro Botello Moreno, aliases Isidro Botello and Chelo, 32, pleaded guilty
before Jarvis to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to
distribute 100 to 400 kilograms of marijuana between January 1997 and May 2000.

Moreno also arranged for the transportation of marijuana from Texas to
Harriman and Knoxville in PCV tubes, according to his plea agreement papers
and other court documents.

Moreno, who has lived in the United States for about 16 years, also agreed
to forfeit about $68,900, the property, a 1996 Chevrolet pickup truck, a
revolver, a .22-caliber pistol and nine boxes of ammunition, which were
seized from him June 26, according to the papers.

The FBI investigated the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Ward said.

Jarvis sentenced a Sneedville man last week to four years in prison and a
$5,000 fine for supplying multiple-pound quantities of marijuana to another
man over a five-year period.

"I just made some bad judgments," James Howard Livesay told the judge.

Jarvis accepted Folmar's recommendation for a lower sentence than called
for by guidelines. The judge also imposed eight years of supervised
release, which Livesay will have to serve after his prison term.

Livesay admitted in his plea agreement papers to distributing 35 to 40
pounds of pot about every two months from 1997 to 1999 or 2000. He has two
felony drug convictions and one felony gun conviction out of Grainger
County in 1991, court records show.