FEDERAL COURT REVERSES POT CONVICTION

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An Idaho man convicted of growing marijuana was
granted a new trial by a federal appeals court, which said the government
used evidence collected at 17 pot farms in his trial while linking him to
only one.

Salvadore Valdez-Velasquez was arrested in a task force sweep of 17 pot
farms in Idaho. His arrest took place at the "Ola" site, the first of the
17 raided farms.

At his trial, the government introduced evidence collected at all 17 farms,
including millions of dollars worth of pot and several fireams, and won a
conviction despite frequent objections from the defense.

However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that the
prosecution had little evidence linking Valdez-Velasquez to 16 of the 17
farms and should not have been allowed to use evidence collected there.

"In this case, the district court clearly abused its discretion, and we
need not engage in any delicate balancing," said the ruling. "The evidence
of other sites .. was of little probative value to any material issue."

"The failure to tie Valdez in with the other growing areas left the jury
free to speculate about the scale of his involvement and may have
needlessly inflamed their passions against him," the ruling added.

The case was No. 98-30210.