RAVE ARRESTS WORRY HOUSTON PROMOTERS

NewOrleans case may set precedent

Some Houston organizers of raves - all-night, teen dance parties - support
the prosecution of three rave promoters in New Orleans for allegedly
violating the federal crack house law.

But some legal experts and rave promoters worry that the case may set a
dangerous precedent, allowing federal prosecutors to investigate and shut
down legitimate businesses.

The crack house law allows prosecution of people who know about illegal
activities on their property even though they are not taking part in the
activities.

Brothers Robert and Brian Brunet and James D. Estopinal, aka Donnie, are to
be arraigned today in New Orleans. A federal grand jury indicted them Jan.
12.

This is supposedly the first time the crack house statute has been used to
shut down raves, which law enforcement officials claim are havens for people
using and selling illegal club drugs such as ecstasy.

Prosecutors said the Brunets and Estopinal knew that drugs were being used
and distributed at their raves but did nothing to prevent it. The raves were
held from 1995 to August 2000 at the State Palace Theater, a venue Robert
Brunet leased for the events.

Each of the three could get 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

"It's a good thing," said Dan McDaniel, spokesman for S.D.C. Productions, a
Houston-based entertainment firm that promotes raves and other dance
parties. "It cleans house."

But Albert Rowan, a former Houston rave promoter and disc jockey who moved
to San Francisco for his music career, fears that the case may target raves
nationwide.

Rowan wonders: If a rave promoter is jailed because people use drugs at
raves, why can't concert promoters be jailed because concertgoers use drugs?

"The whole case they're bringing against these guys is ludicrous," he said.

The case may set a precedent, permitting the government to prosecute
law-abiding business people, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a professor of
criminal law at the University of Houston and associate dean of the
university's Law Center.

"It now gives the federal government the power to go after legitimate
business people," she said.

It would be difficult, she said, to prove that the promoters intended to
encourage or facilitate drug use at the raves.

However, George Cazenavette III, special agent in charge of the Drug
Enforcement Administration in New Orleans, said his office made several
links - including the death of a teen-ager from an ecstasy overdose -
between the New Orleans raves and possible illegal drug use, suggesting that
the promoters may have known about the drug activity.

According to court documents, the DEA found that emergency medical crews
handled more than 70 drug overdoses during raves at the State Palace Theater
between December 1997 and August 2000.

A 17-year-old went into a coma after suffering a drug overdose at the
theater Aug. 9, 1998, and died 16 days later.

When the DEA executed a search warrant at the theater in August 2000 because
of alleged drug activity, the three promoters stopped holding the raves at
the venue, and area hospitals recorded more than a 90 percent drop in
ecstasy overdoses, Cazenavette said.

"You can draw that conclusion," Cazenavette said when asked if the drop
resulted from discontinuance of the raves.