EX-ESCONDIDO PLANNING BOARD CHIEF TO GET A YEAR IN METH CASE

Quick Pleads Guilty To 3 Felony Counts

The former chairman of the Escondido Planning Commission pleaded guilty
yesterday to three felony counts involving a methamphetamine lab at his
landscaping business and agreed to be sentenced to a year in County Jail.

"I should have to serve about six months," Bruce Quick said in a prepared
statement outside court. "We all agree this is an appropriate sentence for
what my involvement was in this case."

Prosecutors agreed to drop 63 pending felony counts as part of a plea
bargain. Quick agreed to let Vista Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman
consider those counts at sentencing.

Prosecutor Frank Jackson said in an interview that the counts Quick pleaded
to reflected "what he had done."

Quick, 44, plans to surrender in court and begin his jail term May 13.

Kirkman warned Quick that he faces up to 13 years, four months in prison if
he violates the terms of his probation. The judge will determine the length
of probation and its conditions at a hearing scheduled for May 31.

Before yesterday's hearing, Quick was scheduled to go to trial June 7.

People who plead guilty to drug offenses involving weapons are typically
ordered to undergo regular drug testing, stay away from weapons or
explosives and submit to searches from authorities, with or without a warrant.

Defense lawyer Brad Patton said he would ask the judge for a three-year
probation term.

He said that although Quick pleaded guilty to manufacturing
methamphetamine, "It does not mean he himself has been manufacturing
methamphetamine." Rather, he said, the charge includes helping others make
the drug.

In an interview in July, Quick told The San Diego Union-Tribune he had
nothing to hide. "I made some poor choices in trying to help bad-off
people," he said.

Quick also suggested that Escondido police were motivated by his support
for an independent board to review complaints against officers. Escondido
police denied that had anything to do with his arrest.

The manufacturing charge included the allegation that he had a gun. Nobody
else has been charged in the case.

Patton said police found a gun in Quick's warehouse, not far from the
methamphetamine lab.

Quick also pleaded guilty to felony identity theft and burglary -- entering
a Wal-Mart store with the intention of passing a bad check. It's a burglary
to enter a building intending to commit a crime.

Police said in court during an earlier hearing that they first pulled over
Quick on May 25 because his truck was missing a front license plate.

An officer testified that Quick looked as if he were on drugs and had what
appeared to be phony checks and fake identification cards on him.

Quick tested positive for methamphetamine use and was arrested, officers
said. He resigned from the planning commission the next day.

A search of his landscaping business after his arrest turned up four guns,
a briefcase containing checks, receipts and identification, and chemicals
that could be used to make methamphetamine.

Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler said yesterday she was disappointed in Quick.

"It's better for him to admit that he's guilty and move on. It's
disappointing to have had a planning commissioner engaged in drug activity
and drug use. We're supposed to be a model for our youth and this is bad,"
she said. "The best thing he did was resign right away and I just hope he
and his family can move on and get straightened out."

* Staff writer Craig Gustafson contributed to this story.