LEGAL COMMUNITY BEMOANS SEARCH OF LAWYER'S OFFICE

A police search Wednesday of a [redacted] lawyer's office has the legal
community buzzing with worries about government intrusion into
attorney-client privilege - one of the oldest principles in U.S. law.

More than a dozen agents with a search warrant approved by a federal
magistrate judge walked into the office of [redacted] just after 7
a.m. and seized financial, property, business, travel and personal
records of 17 people.

[redacted], a lawyer for 27 years, is not charged with any crime. However,
he is obviously the unnamed "Attorney A" in a 196-page federal
indictment issued Wednesday that named 12 men allegedly involved in
an international conspiracy to smuggle marijuana and cocaine, grow
marijuana and make methamphetamine. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

The agents left six hours later with 11 items, including data from
four computers, according to the search warrant.

The affidavit, or sworn statement, that agents used to get
authorization for the seizures is under court seal because of the
ongoing investigation, so it cannot be determined what evidence they
cited to get the judge's permission.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that," Assistant U.S. Attorney Monte
Stiles said Friday. He said agents carefully followed search pro- cedures.

It could not be determined Friday whether anyone keeps track of
searches of lawyers' offices. While it doesn't track such searches,
the National Criminal Defense Lawyers Association says on its Web
site that they are on the rise.

Defense lawyers say such searches chip away at citizens' fundamental
rights and at the public's confidence in the legal system.

"Whenever the government breaches the attorney-client privilege, it
further erodes those liberties that have defined us as Americans for
two centuries," said Greg Hazarabedian, director of Public Defenders
Services of Lane County.

"This is scary stuff," he said. "This hits home. This is really quite
upsetting for a lot of us in this profession." Participants in the
drug ring allegedly bought and sold drugs on consignment with other
dealers. The Internal Revenue Service's criminal division headed the
probe, which seeks forfeiture of millions of dollars worth of
property gained through drug profits.

In the indictment, federal prosecutors note that clients of "Attorney
A" don't cooperate with investigators when they are arrested. The
indictment suggests [redacted] may be paid under an arrangement with the
drug ring to represent ring members who are caught.

The indictment says [redacted]'s phone number is frequently found when
suspects are arrested. It lists him among numerous suspects who made
and received phone calls while under surveillance on certain days,
suggesting he may be privy to their schemes.

It suggests that he passes information among suspects to facilitate
criminal activity. On one occasion, the indictment says, "Attorney A"
used his office account to look up a license plate number so his
client could determine whether an undercover agent was following him.

Criminal defense lawyers say it's easy for police to cast everyday
events in a sinister light.

Bob McCrea, a prominent Eugene defense lawyer with over 50 years of
experience, said his own practice was once widely known to represent
federal drug defendants who didn't want to cooperate with prosecutors
out of fear or loyalty to others. The lawyer's job is to work for the
client in any case, he said.

"They wanted to get somebody to defend them as hardball as possible
without cooperating," McCrea said. The key to ethical conduct for a
lawyer is to explain all the options to a client, then let the client
choose whether to cooperate, he said, adding, "That's the important
distinction, that the client decides."

The fact that criminals keep a lawyer's phone number handy shouldn't
surprise anybody, McCrea said. "I would have been in jail a long time
ago if that were illegal," he said.

Ethics require lawyers to keep confidential any communications with
their client unless the client reveals plans for a future crime
beyond such things as idle threats against informants, McCrea said.

Some such conversations can enter a gray area that requires the
lawyer to decide on a case-by-case basis whether he should pass the
information along to the authorities, he said.

A lawyer can be found to have aided and abetted a crime if he does
something with the intention of helping commit the crime, McCrea said.

The alleged license plate incident involving [redacted] could be an
example, he said, but the client could have lied about the reason for
requesting the license plate information, and Terry could have
believed he was simply doing his client a favor.

The bottom line is, defense lawyers must be wary in their dealings
with clients while avoiding entanglement in illegal acts. "There is
nothing about being a lawyer that exempts you from being searched for
crimes you may have committed," McCrea said.

If a law office search is authorized, the legal presumption is that
all steps will be taken to protect client information not identified
as evidence for the search, he said. If agents go outside their
authority, the improperly collected evidence can be kept out of court, he said.

Although agents never barged into their offices, Eugene lawyers Jay
Frank, David Moule and Shaun McCrea, the daughter of Bob McCrea, know
the feeling.

They were accused in 1995 of laundering $80,000 in drug money for a
client. Federal agents negotiated for some of their business records
but never used a search warrant to take them. The lawyers spent six
years fighting the accusation.

To the lawyers, the impact was immediate, negative and personal.

"The word on the street among the potentially accused was that it
might be better not to have me as an attorney," Shaun McCrea said.

Facing the overwhelming power of the federal government was an
emotional nightmare that the lawyers said left them with deeper
empathy for the fear their clients face.

In a 2001 settlement, the government admitted it had no probable
cause to suspect wrongdoing in the case, and the three lawyers paid a
total of $32,000 to the government.

Frank said Friday that he found the search of [redacted]'s office "shocking."

Then, as now, legal experts called the government's action an
intrusion on the attorney-client privilege.

"It's a problem," said John Potter, director of the Oregon Criminal
Defense Lawyers Association. "It's intrusive. It's intimidating."

[sidebar]

WHAT'S NEW

Police raided a [redacted] lawyer's office Wednesday in
connection with the indictment of an alleged 30-year drug ring.

* Attorney [redacted] is thought to be "Attorney A" in a 196-page
federal indictment. Police seized financial, property, business,
travel and personal records of 17 people, although [redacted] was not
charged with any crime.

* The agents left after the six-hour search with only 11 items,
including data from four computers.

* [redacted]'s phone number is frequently found when suspects are
arrested, according to the indictment. He is listed among the
suspects who made and received phone calls while under surveillance.

* The legal community has expressed concerns about government
intrusion into attorney-client privilege.