ONE YEAR AFTER HIGHLY PUBLICIZED METH RAID, CHARGES WERE QUIETLY DROPPED

BENTONVILLE -- On Sept. 16, 1999, officers from several different agencies
converged on a 40-acre farm west of Pea Ridge on Benton County Road 40. The
officers split into four teams that converged on the house and surrounding
outbuilding.

They suspected a meth lab was being operated on the property. The action
resulted in the arrest of Kevin Bray, along with his wife, Regina Bray,
Timothy Pearson and George Julian. They were charged with possession of a
controlled substance with intent to deliver, simultaneous possession of
drugs and firearms, manufacturing a controlled substance, and other
drug-related offenses.

The publicity

After the raid, Sheriff Andy Lee described the operation as the most
potentially-dangerous situation in which the Benton County Sheriff's Office
had ever been involved. There were statements from law officials that a
large-scale drug operation was being operated on the property.

Sheriff Andy Lee even publicly described Kevin Bray as a coward because he
evaded arrest the night of the raid. Bray turned himself in the next day.

Public information deputy Tom Brewster described the individuals as
well-armed and organized. "They had men patrolling the perimeter of the
property with guns whenever they were cooking. They had armed men stopping
traffic on area roads, whenever they saw someone they did not recognize.
The neighbors have lived in terror for a long time."

The sources

Authorities received much of their information from confidential
informants. One such informant called Brewster on Aug. 19, 1999, to inform
him that a substantial amount of drug activity was taking place at the
residence.

Law officers said the suspected operation also had surveillance cameras and
radio communications.

The farm was even described as a military-style compound and its occupants
supposedly used night-vision equipment, according to court documents. The
informant told Brewster that a majority of the activity was taking place
during times when strange chemical odors were detected in the air. Brewster
was told by the informant that he was approached by armed individuals from
the property and told to mind his own business.

Other informants told law officers that several vehicles would patrol the
Bray's property and adjoining county roads in the area and they told about
a chemical odor coming from the Bray property. Informants told officers
about gunshots coming from the property.

Someone supposedly sat armed in a deer stand in a large tree by the
driveway of the farm.

A trailer near the house supposedly served as a lab for manufacturing
methamphetamine. According to reports, officers seized several ounces of
the drug, a small amount of marijuana and ingredients for making meth.

The officers confiscated 18 firearms, including rifles, shotguns and
pistols. It was even alleged that stolen property was found at the scene:
Motorcycles, a few cars, tools and electronics were found.

On Sept. 15, officers obtained a warrant to search the property. They
executed the search on Sept. 16.

It resulted in the arrest of the Brays, Pearson and Julian. Besides the
legal problems from the charges, the Brays lost custody of their children
because of the incident. The four were in and out of court dealing with the
charges.

There was a lot of noise and publicity about the drug operation. You would
expect that four convictions would follow. However, that's not how this
story turned out.

A year later

A year has passed since the raid on the Brays' farm. And all the criminal
charges were dismissed against each of the accused.

"We are just glad it's finally over," Regina Bray tearfully said after she
learned the charges had been dismissed. "We went through hell. It was scary."

At a hearing on Sept. 11, Division 2 Circuit Judge David Clinger dismissed
the charges against the Brays and Pearson. On Sept. 15, the charges against
Julian were dropped.

"We are obviously pleased by the prosecutor's decision," Attorney Kevin
Pawlik said after the hearing. "We felt it was inevitable in this case.
This was a case in which much was expected and a little bit was found."

Guilty or innocent

So, were they victims of an over enthusiastic police operation? Did the
fear about the methamphetamine problem in northwest Arkansas cause law
officials to over react? Did the Bray family go through an unnecessary ordeal?

And, if they are victims, how many more might be out there?

On the other hand, did guilty individuals escape a punishment that might
have seen them sentenced to life in prison?

The answer depends on who you ask.

Their defense attorneys will tell you that their clients were innocent
victims. They will tell you that authorities relied heavily on confidential
informants and did not conduct a proper investigation into the claims. They
will also tell you that the informants were unreliable because some of them
are convicted felons.

"Just look at all the evidence that they supposedly had and it's basically
second-hand information, said John Gross, Regina Bray's attorney. "Officers
did not observe any drug activity at the residence."

Every action at the farm became suspicious to law officers, Gross said. For
example, on the day of the raid, officers thought it was suspicious that a
moving van was at the residence. They connected it to drug activity. It
turned out that Julian worked for a moving company. Julian lived in a
camper on the Bray's farm, Gross said.

They talked about a number of vehicles and people that were observed at the
residence one weekend, Gross said. It was on a Labor Day weekend, he said.
Also, Kevin Bray fixes cars.

Everything these people did became suspicious, Gross said.

"They never did have anybody directly say, except for one person, that they
saw any type of drug-making activity going on and that one person wasn't
very credible because of her past," Gross said. "They decided to go in on a
bunch of hearsay. They should have done a whole lot more investigation
before they went storming in. It would have been one thing if they had sent
an undercover officer in and he actually bought drugs -- but that didn't
happen in this case.

"It was a big, big over-reaction on the part of law enforcement," Gross said.

Delays, delays

Investigators for the Benton County Sheriff's Office waited five months
after the raid to submit items for testing to the state Crime Laboratory in
Little Rock. The lab received the evidence on Feb. 2, 2000. All the
evidence gathered during the raid was not submitted to the laboratory.
Reports were also completed several months after the raid.

Fifty-six different items were listed on an evidence recovery log from the
Sheriff's Office. Only nine of those items were submitted to the laboratory
for testing.

Traces of methamphetamine were found on some of the items, but it wasn't
enough to proceed with felony drug charges.

Prosecuting Attorney Robin Green admits that the case should have been
handled better.

"It's frustrating for us not to be able to make a case with the evidence
that we had," Green said. "I believe in a firm, but fair prosecution. When
you added it together, it became apparent that the case was inherently unfair."

"Sometimes you have to make the tough decisions and say we are not going to
pursue this case any further," she said.

Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed Green prosecuting attorney in April after Brad
Butler resigned from office.

The evidence that they sent came from Julian's camper, Gross said. "When
they sent the stuff off to the drug lab that they thought were drugs and it
came back negative, then their case was in deep trouble," he said.

Green said the handling of the evidence and the reports should have been
more thorough.

"The investigators work extremely hard, and I can attest to that," the
prosecutor said. "I'm unhappy with the results, but I'm not unhappy with
the people. I believe this is an isolated incident and lessons have been
learned because of this incident."

Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee said he still believes officers did a good
job. "That was a pretty big operation and a lot of hours went into it," the
sheriff said. "It's unfortunate that it ended this way."

The future

"If these people are truly out running a methamphetamine lab, then there
will be another time to get them," Green said. "And we'll make sure their
rights are protected, that the paperwork is done properly and that the
evidence is handled properly. We'll get them that time."

"It's not my nature to sit and point fingers," Lee said. "We will review it
internally with the staff to see where and what went wrong.

"If those people continue to be involved in drugs, then we'll get them. It
will come home," Lee said.

Gross said the immediate plans for the Brays are to regain custody of their
three children and rebuild their family. "There aren't enough words that
can comfort these people for what they went through," he said. "They have
been without their children for a year.

"Hopefully, the police will really investigate a case thoroughly before
they storm someone's home," Gross said. "We should all be concerned about that."