MOONSHINE COSTS FAMILY ITS HOME

Agents Target Property And Bank Accounts

Operation Lightning Strike, a joint federal and state investigation into
moonshine in southwestern Virginia, began one year ago today.

Delorise Ann James thought her family had paid for her husband's
moonshine-making ways.

In October 1998, state liquor agents burst onto their Ferrum property and
busted a small still in a detached garage. Rodney L. James, 41, was
arrested, but because this was his first conviction, he received a suspended
jail sentence and a $2,500 fine.

Previously in Franklin County's 70-year feud between hooch hustlers and the
law, James' crime would have ended there.

That was before Operation Lightning Strike, the joint state-federal
investigation headed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The
operation revealed itself one year ago today with the splashy raid of
suspected moonshiners' homes and a 9,800-gallon still in Craig County.

The massive operation targets not only the distillers, but also a Rocky
Mount store that authorities believe supplied the jugs, sugar and other
liquor ingredients. It reaches from North Carolina to Philadelphia, a
bastion of shine-swiggers. But so far it's produced only perjury charges and
some minor moonshine indictments.

Last week, the James family became the first serious task force victims.

Though they have not been indicted, a judge on Tuesday ordered them and
another Franklin County man to forfeit their homes to the federal government
because of past ties to the illegal whiskey trade. The couple and their
three children -- Jesse, 7, Frank, 6, and 3-year-old Victoria -- now have 40
days to find a new home.

"My husband and I are just flabbergasted that they're going to go forward
with this," a tearful Delorise James said Thursday when she got the notice.
"I want to take my children over to the federal building and have them
explain why they're being kicked out of their home."

A federal forfeiture case is a civil proceeding, not criminal, and requires
a lower burden of proof. Federal prosecutors must show only that it is more
likely than not that the money used to buy the property came from ill-gotten
gains. By comparison, the standard of proof is much higher in a criminal
case. To convict a defendant, prosecutors must prove he is guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt.

In a forfeiture proceeding, "the wrongful nature of property is at issue,
not the wrongful conduct of the owner," said Sharon Burnham, the assistant
U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. "But obviously you're using people's
actions to show how the property was wrongfully acquired."

Burnham said that once suspects learn they're under investigation, they'll
often try to hide any assets bought with illegally made money -- a major
reason for civil forfeiture.

The tactic has traditionally been used in the war on big - city drugs, not
backwoods liquor -- and it appears to be a clear sign of the feds' squeeze
on the moonshine trade.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court show that James bought the 43-acre
lot for $91,000 in February 1999 from Shirley Hale Whitlow. She is the
sister of Lightning Strike's main suspect, Ralph D. Hale, who has moonshine
convictions dating to the 1960s.

Authorities claim Whitlow's 1996 purchase of that land -- and the $325,000
she paid in 1998 for the Craig County parcel that held the still -- were
financed by her brother in an attempt to launder moonshine money. Hale, his
son and another man were at the still with a sugar-laden pickup truck at the
time of the raid, the ATF says.

In March, the U.S. Attorney's office filed for forfeiture of James' land as
well as 57.55 acres in Franklin County owned by Hale's brother, Donald K.
Hale.

Neither James nor Donald Hale had attorneys to challenge the forfeiture.
Delorise James, 27, said she couldn't afford the $4,000 for a lawyer, and
federal courts don't provide representation in forfeiture cases for people
who can't afford it.

"All because we don't have the money to fight the federal government," she
said, "all because we bought the house from the wrong person and my husband
made one mistake, how long are we and our children going to be paying for
it?"

Under a new federal law to take effect later this year, indigent landowners
hit with a forfeiture complaint will get court-appointed counsel if the
property is their primary residence or if it's linked to a criminal case.
Too late for the James family.

But Lightning Strike has rumbled far beyond their land.

Cars, trucks, tractors and trailers belonging to other suspects -- Ralph
Hale and fellow Franklin County moonshine legends Amos Law and William "Dee"
Stanley -- have already been forfeited in the investigation.

From Ralph Hale and various relatives, federal authorities seek forfeiture
of the 122-acre Craig County lot and 256 acres in Franklin County -- all
worth $681,900 -- and bank and mutual fund accounts totaling $115,393.

Moonshine made the 60-year-old Hale's wealth, the government alleges,
because his 1990 to 1998 tax returns show that the most he ever made in one
of those years was $33,139. Hale's attorney is fighting the seizure.

Prosecutors also seek 4.9 acres in Henry County valued at $77,000 belonging
to Dee Stanley's son, Jason, who has his own moonshine history.

Jason's attorney, Jim Jefferson, finds it troubling that a person who has
not been charged in a moonshine case can lose hearth and home.

"I continue to read about cocaine and crack cocaine and heroin and God knows
what all. ... I just see a lack of consistency," Jefferson said.

The families of William L. Helms and the late Ramsey Helms face the possible
forfeiture of 113 acres of land in Franklin County and more than $150,000
cash. The brothers owned Helms Farmers Exchange in Rocky Mount, the
suspected supplier of moonshine materials, until the May 7, 1999, bust shut
it down.

Material goods aren't all the Helmses lost in the investigation. Nine days
after the raid, Ramsey Helms stuck a gun to his chest and killed himself. He
was 56.

Last month, eight people were indicted as part of the investigation. But
only Nelson P. Giles, a 58-year-old Pittsylvania County tobacco farmer, and
a migrant Mexican couple working on his land were charged with making
moonshine. The other five, including Amos Law, were accused of lying to the
Roanoke federal grand jury hearing the case.

Authorities say they expect to indict 15 more people, some on
money-laundering charges that can carry a 20-year prison term, in addition
to the traditional moonshine-related counts, which offer five years at most.

"A year ain't that unusual for a case with the magnitude of this one," said
Bart McEntire, resident-agent-in-charge of the ATF in Roanoke.

Financial investigations that span a decade require tedious auditing and the
study of thousands of bank records, McEntire said.

"When you follow the money, it takes a long time," he explained, "especially
when people are trying to hide it."