NOTORIOUS POT GROWER PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL COURT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- One of Oregon's most notorious marijuana growers has
pleaded guilty in federal court.

Rhett "Tom" Phillips built a marijuana-growing empire in the 1980s, then
eluded authorities for more than five years before U.S. marshals captured
him in late 1997 near San Jose, Calif.

Under a plea agreement announced Tuesday, Phillips, 44, faces a likely
prison term of 10 years. He also agreed to pay a $1 million fine. He's
scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14.

Phillips, one of more than a dozen people to be prosecuted as part of a
lengthy federal investigation, faced a 16-count indictment but pleaded
guilty to only one count of conspiracy and one count of money-laundering.

Phillips was a star high school quarterback as a senior in McMinnville in
1971. According to a 1993 federal indictment, Phillips began growing
marijuana as early as 1976.

By 1981, he ran a major growing operation that included more than a dozen
grow houses. Phillips admitted in the plea agreement to growing 1,000 to
4,000 plants.

In the early 1980s, Phillips funneled about $1.2 million in profits into a
Swiss bank account, then removed it before authorities could track down the
money, according to a federal affidavit.

In 1990, federal authorities seized Phillips' home west of Portland, which
had hidden rooms to grow marijuana. That same year, the U.S. Attorney's
office began prosecuting more than a dozen of Phillips' alleged cohorts,
including his wife and brother. Most served time in prison.

After several of them pleaded guilty, Phillips fled in the summer of 1992.
He had a foreign passport in another name and spent at least some of his
time hiding in Switzerland.

U.S. marshals arrested him Nov. 1, 1997 in a mall near San Jose while he
was meeting secretly with his estranged wife.

Checked-by: Richard Lake