METH-LAB FORCE TO OFFER EVIDENCE

Case Focus Of Tattered Cover Ruling

Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - The North Metro Drug Task Force plans to
present evidence next week to Adams County prosecutors against those it
believes ran the methamphetamine lab that was the focus of Monday's
Tattered Cover Book Store ruling.

Should prosecutors accept the case, the task force will issue a nationwide
arrest warrant for the suspects, who disappeared shortly before the lab was
raided, said Lt. Lori Moriarty, commander of the task force.

"We don't know where they are," said Moriarty. "We were never able to find
them and don't know how to get ahold of them."

At the time of the spring 2000 raid on the trailer which contained the lab,
two people were present.

But Moriarty said an investigation showed the pair had never been there
before and were waiting for four people thought to have lived in the trailer.

Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor, said it makes sense for
prosecutors to pursue a case against the suspects rather than simply
abandon it because their whereabouts are unknown.

"There appears to be an epidemic of methamphetamine usage and manufacturing
in Colorado. Any responsible prosecutor has to be concerned about that,"
said Silverman.

"It would send a wrong message from a prosecutorial perspective to suggest
a person who manufactures methamphetamines can leave the state and not
worry about local law enforcement trying to find them," said Silverman.

Moriarty stressed that investigators believe the ruling Monday by the
Colorado Supreme Court denied investigators a critical piece of evidence.

Investigators recovered a Tattered Cover mailer at the home with a
suspect's name on it and two "how-to" meth books - which the Tattered Cover
sold - in the master bedroom where the lab was located. The task force
sought Tattered Cover sales records to see if one of the suspects ordered
the "how-to" books.

Moriarty said investigators believed that the person whose name appeared on
the mailer may have been the ringleader, but that he apparently didn't
sleep in the master bedroom where the lab and books were found. Knowing who
ordered the books might have established who slept in the master bedroom
and ran the lab, she said.