DENTON DA CANDIDATE PLEADS GUILTY TO MARIJUANA DELIVERY

Democrat remains eligible for office if elected

DENTON -- The Democratic candidate for Denton County district attorney
pleaded guilty to delivery of marijuana Monday and was given two years'
probation.

Because Stephen Hale received deferred adjudication, he will have no
criminal conviction if he successfully completes the probation. So he
apparently could take office if elected Nov. 3.

After his arrest in March, he had said he was withdrawing as a candidate,
but he did not submit the necessary paperwork to the Texas secretary of
state's office. His name remains on the ballot.

"If elected, I am eligible to serve," he said Monday evening, "and I'm
thinking about it....I believe that people who would support me don't care
about my giving a little bit of marijuana to a former girlfriend, and those
who hate me will hate me anyway."

District Attorney Bruce Isaacks, the Republican incumbent on the ballot, has
denied any involvement in the charges against his rival.

Mr. Isaacks withdrew from prosecuting the marijuana case against Mr. Hale,
and Collin County Distrct Attorney Tom O'Connell was appointed special
prosecutor.

On Monday, Mr. Isaacks called his opponent's guilty plea "further evidence
of the little regard Mr. Hale has for the law and the office he was
seeking."

"However, I don't have any ill will toward him," Mr. Isaacks said. "I hope
he can get this chapter behind him and can continue to be a practicing
attorney and a productive citizen."

Mr. Hale was charged with delivering more than a QUARTER- OUNCE of marijuana
to a woman in June 1997.

"She was strung out on Valium," he said. "I finally agreed to give her a
little marijuana. And when I did, she was wired."

Five officers arrested Mr. Hale at his Denton apartment, he said.

"This Ranger from Wise County had a big smile on his face," Mr. Hale said.
"... They put me in their narcmobile, but they didn't even know where the
jail was. I gave them directions to the jail, me being the big criminal that
I was."

As Wise County attorney from 1993 through 1996, Mr. Hale dismissed several
hundred marijuana cases. He said he developed that policy after he was
charged with possessing the drug as an Army draftee in the 1970s, near the
close of the Vietnam War. He was given deferred adjudication then, too, so
he has no felony conviction, he testified Monday.

"Almost every GI I knew smoked marijuana, but I got caught," he said in 1994
after Wise County police groups called for his resignation as county
attorney. "I came home from serving my country on felony probation for not
hurting anybody."

Officers have accused him of being soft on marijuana and drunken-driving
cases, and he said he thinks some of them targeted him for his latest
arrest.

"I dismissed over 500 marijuana cases because I did not see how it was in
the interest of justice to punish someone for a victimless offense," he
said. "That's still how I feel about it. On the DWI's, I tried to get as
many convictions as I could. There was an overwhelming caseload. Sometimes I
would reduce the charge to get a guilty plea."

He said he agreed to plead guilty Monday on the advice of his attorneys,
Jerry Cobb and Ricky Perritt.

"I did it," he said. "I gave this old girl some marijuana... I'm happy that
I had the best legal defense team around. And I'm happy I'm still on the
ballot. I'm a lawyer, not a pot dealer."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst