DON'T READ CLASSIFIED ADS,JUDGE TELLS JURY IN POT CASE

The Defendant Has Placed Ads, And Even A Grade School Photograph Of
Himself, Touting His Innocence

The Roanoke Times classified ads are off-limits to the jury trying a
man on a marijuana growing charge, a judge decided Monday.

Were they allowed, jurors might see the smiling face of defendant Jay
Lynch - circa 1970 - staring back at them. Underneath the thumb-sized
black and white photo, Lynch asks readers if they "could put this
injured, innocent, honest, kind, homegrown, lovable, precious face
behind bars." Lynch, 40, faces five to 30 years in prison if
convicted.

Roanoke Circuit Judge Robert P. Doherty ordered jurors not to look at
news accounts of the trial, which is set to end today. That's
routine. But in an unusual move, he also ordered them not to look at
the newspaper's classified section, which on Monday contained six
other advertisements paid for by Lynch.

Prosecutor Wes Nance said he's never known a judge to make such a request.

The ads have run for about six months in the special notices section,
trumpeting such things as Lynch's belief in medicinal marijuana and
his abhorrence of anonymous tipsters, who he says got him charged in
the first place.

He's elevated his profile with a call-in appearance on nationally
syndicated shock-jock Howard Stern's radio show. But what Doherty
called Lynch's "shenanigans" haven't helped him in court. He
short-circuited his first trial March 9, repeatedly arguing about
evidence and trying to shoehorn his own testimony into Nance's
examination of witnesses.

Doherty declared a mistrial, found Lynch in contempt of court and
sentenced him to 10 days in jail.

The second time around, a courthouse camera loomed near the defense
table, ready to transmit the proceedings into the lockup, where the
judge promised Lynch would wind up if he tried the same tactics.

"I'm not going to put up with a lot of the shenanigans like we had
last time," Doherty told him, adding that he would turn over the
defense to Onzlee Ware, the lawyer he appointed to assist Lynch.

The judge had to caution Lynch again about courtroom rules as a
detective and a state forensics specialist testified about the
marijuana police found in a Sept. 9, 1999, search of Lynch's Westside
Boulevard Northwest Roanoke home. The search turned up more than 100
mature and healthy plants inside and outside the house, Roanoke
police Detective Tim Hartson testified.

Lynch abided by the judge's rules.

"Man, I was lucky I didn't have to go to jail," he said as he left
the courtroom. "I couldn't stand the food in there."