SLO MAN CONVICTED OF DRUG CHARGES

Massive Drug Sting in 1998 Could Mean Up To 20 Years In Prison For Defendant

LOS ANGELES - A San Luis Obispo man was convicted Monday of federal drug
charges, just 18 months after similar charges stemming from the same arrest
were dropped.

In both cases, Howard Leasure, 42, argued that a methamphetamine lab found
on his property was actually a Native American sweat lodge.

Leasure was convicted in a federal district court in Los Angeles on Monday
of allowing members of a drug ring to manufacture methamphetamine -- an
estimated $1 million worth over a one-year period -- at his address on the
1000 block of O'Connor Way in San Luis Obispo.

Federal prosecutors said that more than 200 pounds of the drug was
manufactured at the San Luis Obispo site in 1997 and part of 1998, and that
the multi-jurisdictional sting led to closure of six meth labs and the
indictment of more than two dozen people.

Leasure's attorney, Derrick Li, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Leasure and another renter, Nickolas Kopp, 63, both first were arrested in
March 1998 in a bust that yielded many materials commonly associated with
meth labs: 70 cans of freon gas, red phosphorus, kitty litter, a hydraulic
press, and 300 pounds of sodium hydroxide.

The most contentious item found near Leasure's mobile home was 10 pounds of
a caustic soda. At the time of the arrests, narcotics agents thought the
material contained methamphetamine. Five days later, tests had determined
that the drug was not present in the sodium mix.

Local prosecutors said they dropped charges against Leasure, not because of
the misidentification of the caustic soda but because Leasure's case was
ensnared in a larger, federal investigation that spanned from Mexico to the
Central Coast.

Officials with the county's Narcotics Task Force said pursuing the case
locally would have meant divulging key evidence in a then-ongoing federal
investigation

After the charges in San Luis Obispo were dropped, Leasure issued a
stinging rebuke of local law enforcement. He described his feelings during
the bust to The Tribune:

"I just sat there calm as can be thinking: 'Boy, are you guys a bunch of
buffoons. Just wait until you find out it's not what you think it is.'"

Leasure said he believed that his arrest was a by-product of "small-town
politics." He accused San Luis Obispo's police chief, Jim Gardiner, of
staging the bust to coincide with his bid for the county Sheriff's office.

Leasure filed a lawsuit against the city and county of San Luis Obispo, the
Narcotics Task Force, the Sheriff's Department, various detectives from the
San Luis Obispo Police Department, as well as the police chiefs in Grover
Beach and San Luis Obispo.

Leasure's attorney in that suit, Cayucos-based Douglas Michie, did not
return several calls for comment on the status of the case.

A spokesperson from the federal prosecutor's office, Tom Mrozek, said a
motion to dismiss the suit was scheduled for a hearing this week, but he
was not sure of its outcome.

Nikolas Kopp pleaded guilty to the federal drug charges in June 1999. He
has not been sentenced.

Leasure's sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 25. Both men face
maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison.