CONDE WON'T GET FILES BACK

Computers belonging to marijuana activist Bill Conde will stay in police
hands for now, a Linn County judge has decided.

Circuit Judge Rick McCormick ruled that police acted within the law when
they seized computers, business records and other materials during a raid
at Conde's North Coburg Road property near Harrisburg on Sept. 15.

Conde, who is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Albany on a felony
count of marijuana possession, said he wasn't surprised by the ruling.

Authorities said they were trying to identify vendors, security guards and
guests who allegedly bought or sold drugs at Conde's latest
marijuana-themed event, the Cannabis Carnival, over Labor Day weekend.

According to the search warrant affidavit and court testimony, undercover
Linn County sheriff's detectives had reason to believe they would find
pertinent lists of names on the computers.

Conde and his attorney, Brian Michaels of Eugene, challenged the seizures
in court three weeks ago, charging that a broad search of Conde's computers
violated his and others' constitutional freedoms.

The hard drives contain information about political action committees and
names of donors, information that Conde said isn't illegal and isn't the
government's business.

"We were asking, in a civil fashion, to stop what's going on," Conde said,
referring to his request to bar police from accessing the private data.
"We're asking because of the other people whose names are in my computer,
and it's not because they're a bunch of criminals."

At the request of sheriff's authorities, the computers are being examined
by state police experts in computer forensics.

"They're not going to find anything, but they might learn something," Conde
said, noting that his files contain articles and e-mail from around the
world that take aim at the war on drugs. "There's a lot of really, really
strong arguments being made in other parts of the world saying, `Enough is
enough.' There's some wonderful stuff in there. We've got statements by
lots of very, very high statesmen from different countries."

In his brief ruling, McCormick said police had reason to suspect that the
computer files contained evidence. Furthermore, he said, there is no
evidence or testimony from the defense that the type of material Conde says
is on the computers is actually there.

Even if the records supported the defense claim, McCormick said he would
uphold the police action.

"There is no evidence, in this case, that the police had motives to secure
any information other than that directly related to the alleged criminal
activity discussed in the affidavit," he wrote.

Checked-by: Richard Lake