COCAINE DEALER TO UPSCALE PORTLANDERS GETS PRISON

* A judge sentences Michael F. Hipps to 16 months as authorities
continue their investigation of the case

A West Hills cocaine dealer who sold drugs to affluent customers was
sentenced Monday to 16 months in prison.

Michael F. Hipps, 48, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver and
possess significant quantities of cocaine. In exchange, prosecutors
dropped 10 counts of drug delivery and possession against Hipps.

Although authorities have been reluctant to say how much Hipps has
cooperated, documents show that he led police to his suppliers.

"I fully cooperated with the police and provided them with significant
information," Hipps wrote in a letter Monday to Multnomah County
Circuit Judge Julie Frantz.

Based on his cooperation, police arrested a Washington County couple
who pleaded guilty earlier this year to supplying Hipps with drugs.
And a federal grand jury has indicted a California couple who
allegedly sold Hipps the drug business and later extorted money from
him.

So far, at least 11 people, including Hipps, have been prosecuted. But
apparently only David B. Peters, a former Multnomah County deputy
district attorney, was a customer whose name police got from address
books Hipps kept on his clients.

Peters pleaded guilty Nov. 24 to a violation and was fined $100. He
was forced to resign from the district attorney's office and now works
as a defense attorney.

Associates sentenced

Adam Wylie, 33, was sentenced last month to 13 months in prison for
running Hipps' cocaine business while Hipps was out of town. Wylie and
Hipps pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute and
possess cocaine.

Shawnee Rain Arbogast and Fidel Adolfo Cortez-Hernandez, both 26,
pleaded guilty to drug charges in Washington County Circuit Court.
They supplied cocaine to Hipps, said Don Rees, a Multnomah County
deputy district attorney. Arbogast was sentenced to five years'
probation in March, and Cortez-Hernandez was sentenced to 22 months in
prison in January.

Another associate of the two, Alvaro Honorio Solano-Cortez, pleaded
guilty in May to distribution of a controlled substance and was
sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Hipps allegedly bought his cocaine business in late 1994 from Wayne
David Oppenheimer, 36, according to a federal indictment handed down
July 15.

The indictment states that Oppenheimer was a street-level cocaine
dealer in Portland from the mid-1980s until 1994. He later moved to
Napa, Calif.

The indictment did not specify how much Hipps paid for the cocaine but
said he paid for it with drug profits.

Even after allegedly selling the business to Hipps, Oppenheimer
continued acting as a middleman for a few months, buying cocaine from
his source and selling it to Hipps, the indictment says.

Conspiracy for ripoff

But Oppenheimer also planned to rip off Hipps, according to the
indictment. He told Hipps that he had been paying off Portland law
enforcement officials for protection and that Hipps would have to do
the same. But Oppenheimer's claim was false, and the money -- 54 money
orders totaling $27,000 -- instead went to him, according to the indictment.

Oppenheimer also extorted another $28,500 from Hipps in "summer
bonuses" and hush money, the indictment said.

The indictment also charges Oppenheimer's wife, Pamela Cosper
Oppenheimer, and Archie Lanning Blanks Jr., 41, a Portland resident,
with helping Oppenheimer to execute the bogus payoff scheme.

The 31-count indictment includes one count of conspiracy, 14 counts of

mail fraud, 13 counts of money laundering, one count of conspiracy to
distribute and possess cocaine with intent to distribute it, and two
counts of criminal forfeiture.

The Oppenheimers face all 31 charges. Blanks faces conspiracy, mail
fraud and money laundering charges.

In addition, Portland police arrested two men who bought drugs while
police had Wylie under surveillance. The men completed drug diversion
and had the charges removed from their records.

Hipps, who has a master's degree in business administration, worked as
a management consultant. He apologized in his letter.

"I was caught up in the drug culture and developed an addiction to
cocaine. There is no excuse for what I did, but I truly am sorry," he
said.

Rees said the investigation continues.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady