DISMISSAL OF DRUG CHARGES INVALID, COURT RULES

A Superior Court judge was wrong to dismiss criminal charges against a
Randolph County man because he had begun to pay a hefty $450,000 state
tax bill on illegal drugs seized from him, the state Court of Appeals
has ruled.

Ryan Jeffrey Adams was convicted of drug offenses and sent a bill from
the state Department of Revenue for $456,574.26 for the 1,300 grams
of cocaine and the 9,000 grams of marijuana seized by law enforcement
officers.

Adams paid a small portion of the tax bill and later, at his February
1998 trial, moved to have the charges against him dismissed, alleging
that the charges and the tax punished him twice for the same crime.

The Randolph County Superior Court judge granted the motion. His
decision was in line with a federal appeals court ruling released a
month before, where the judges wrote that the state drug tax was not a
tax but a criminal penalty. Imposing the tax amounted to a violation
of the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

But in two other cases, the state appellate courts ruled that the drug
tax was not a form of punishment and did not constitute double jeopardy.

Although the federal appeals court and the state appellate courts
disagree, the state Court of Appeals judges said their decision must
be in line with other state appellate court rulings.

"... With the exception of decisions of the United States Supreme
Court, federal appellate decisions are not binding upon either the
appellate or trial courts of this state," Judge Joseph R. John Sr.
wrote in the opinion released Tuesday.

Adams' was one of scores of cases where convicted drug dealers or
traffickers who had paid part of the state drug tax or whose property
had been seized petitioned courts to reopen their cases or have their
charges dismissed. For a while, the state Department of Revenue
stopped collecting the tax.

Hampton Dellinger, who worked on the case for state Attorney General
Mike Easley, said the state appeals court ruling makes it clear that
state trial courts must obey the opinions of state appellate courts.

"The ruling also means that more traffickers of illegal drugs in North
Carolina will face both criminal penalties and civil taxes just as the
General Assembly intended," Dellinger said.

Adams' lawyer, Jonathan L. Megerian of Asheboro, said he will ask the
state Supreme Court to review the decision. Adams is incarcerated,
Megerian said.

Last session, the General Assembly lowered the taxes on drugs and the
revenue department revived collections Oct. 31.