EX-PERRY PROSECUTOR TO GET A NEW TRIAL IN DRUG POSSESSION CASE

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A former Perry County prosecutor convicted of illegally
possessing prescription painkillers won a new trial yesterday. The Kentucky
Court of Appeals threw out the conviction and oneyear prison sentence of
John Mark Barger. The court agreed with Barger that secret audiotapes
crucial to his defense were improperly excluded from his trial.

Barger had just been re-elected as Perry County attorney when he was
arrested in a 1998 sting operation.

Barger claimed the state's undercover informant, Barbara Spencer, could be
heard on the tapes discussing a scheme to entrap him and describing how she
planted a pill in his pocket minutes before his arrest.

The trial judge excluded the tapes because the person who made the
recordings and originally identified Spencer's voice, Mary Sue Slone, later
recanted.

Slone and Spencer were acquaintances. At Barger's suggestion, Slone agreed
to secretly record Spencer. She testified at a pretrial hearing that the
voice on her tape was Spencer's but contradicted herself at a later hearing.

Barger's attorney, Ned Pillersdorf of Prestonsburg, said a jury should
decide which version of Slone's testimony to believe. The appeals court agreed.

"While there are certainly credibility problems with any testimony by
Slone, the change in her testimony was not fatal to the admissibility of
the audiotapes," the court said in an opinion by Judge Rick A. Johnson of
Mayfield.

Spencer, who had a sexual relationship with Barger, testified that Barger
concocted a scheme to buy pain pills in bulk and resell them.

Barger claimed he was set up and that depression and bipolar disorder kept
him from thinking rationally. The prosecution said Barger needed money to
avoid foreclosure on his house and to cover legal expenses.

The Perry County Circuit Court jury acquitted Barger of a conspiracy
charge. Two drug-trafficking charges were dismissed before trial.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals agreed with John Mark Barger that secret
audiotapes crucial to his defense were improperly excluded from his trial.