DRUG DEALER EASY TO FIND, SAYS ADDICT

Since drug dealers don't advertise illegal drugs, how do drug users find
their fix?

Steven Dirk Epsteen, 42, has only been in Evansville since April 18, and he
said it didn't take him long to find a supplier for his cocaine addiction.

Epsteen, who was one of 20 people arrested in a drug raid Thursday on two
homes near Culver Elementary School, said any addict knows how to look for
signs of drug dealers.

Believe it or not, the signs are there, you just have to know how to look
for them, he said.

"You look at newspaper reports (about arrests) ... an addict always knows
where to find drugs," said Epsteen. "Just look for a high concentration of
pawn shops and people walking around on the street."

Epsteen, who was milling around the Evansville Police Department
headquarters on Friday, trying to find out how to get his car out of the
police impound lot, minced no words when asked about his innocence or guilt.

"I'm guilty," he said. "I truly have nothing to hide."

Epsteen was interviewed shortly after being released on his own
recognizance Friday after a probable cause hearing on a charge of
possession of cocaine, which is a class D felony.

However, Epsteen, who said he had previously never been arrested for drug
possession, despite using cocaine since the age of 23, does take exception
to the way his vehicle was pulled over by an Evansville Police Department
officer.

After leaving an alleged drug house on Governor Street, "I was quite a ways
away and I looked in my rearview mirror, and there was a cop car way in the
back bearing down on me and pulled me over," said Epsteen. "He told me that
he pulled me over for erratic driving, which is not true.

"That's the only thing I can fault the police on," he said. "If he had
pulled me over and said 'I saw you leave that drug place back there,' it
would have been a little more legitimate."

A police arrest affidavit shows that Epsteen was pulled over at 4:10 p.m.
Thursday atCovert and Evans avenues. The officer wrote that he saw Epsteen
drive left of center as he was approaching Evans, and that Epsteen also
failed to stop at a stop sign at Taylor and Evans avenues.

After stopping Epsteen's car, the officer asked Epsteen to get out of the
vehicle and asked if he'd been drinking, to which Epsteen replied "no." The
officer then asked to search Epsteen's vehicle, and Epsteen complied.

The officer reported that found one-tenth of a gram of cocaine behind an
emergency brake.

Epsteen said he consented to the search because "at that point, there's
nothing you can do. If I'd said, 'I don't want you to search my car,'
that's probable cause to let them search it."

Epsteen, of Greenwood, Ind., said he had been "clean" for 99 days, up until
six days ago, when he left a halfway house after completing a drug
treatment program in Evansville.

"That's the reason I came down here from Indy; I came down here to go to
treatment," said Epsteen.

Epsteen, who said he has been through three treatment programs over the
years - and even enjoyed 3* years drug-free, beginning in 1995 - relapsed
again in Evansville after he left the halfway house.

He said he spent between $500 to $600 on cocaine during his six-day relapse.

"I just kind of got lonely down here and I hadn't been going to meetings
like I was going to," said Epsteen, who has a construction job in Evansville.

Epsteen, who is divorced with two, teen-age children in another state, said
he solely uses cocaine, and did so recreationally without problems for 10
or 12 years.

"Then I started picking up little charges here and there - writing bad
checks, things like that," he said, noting that he had previously been
arrested for writing bad checks in another state in 1983.

Epsteen has an Aug. 2 court appearance. He said he hopes to enter another
drug treatment program.