ADELMAN THROWS OUT MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, in one of his first big rulings since
taking office in January, has thrown out the confession of an alleged drug
money launderer and dismissed charges against the man.

The ruling apparently will free John Vincent Knowles Jr. from charges that
he conspired with a Kenosha drug dealer to use his truck business, once
located in Twin Lakes, to haul bulk quantities of marijuana from the Texas
border to southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

In his ruling, Adelman said the charges were not worded specifically
enough. Federal prosecutors say they are considering filing reworded
charges against Knowles in the wake of Adelman's ruling.

The head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's Wisconsin office,
whose agency along with the U.S. Customs Service investigated Knowles, said
he hopes to keep the case alive.

"I'm disappointed that the ruling went this way," said DEA chief Jack
Riley. "We did put in some substantial time and resources into this case."

Riley, though, declined to criticize Adelman, a liberal Democratic state
senator for two decades who had long been criticized by conservatives for
bottling up tough law-and-order bills when he headed the state Senate's
influential judiciary committee.

"We're disappointed, but if the judge believed the case was weak, we'll try
to shore it up and bring it back," Riley said.

"We're going to work with the attorneys to try to firm the case up."

Knowles, 33 and now living in Lake Villa, Ill., had operated his KTA
Trucking Services out of Twin Lakes and was recruited by a Kenosha drug
dealer in a scheme to use sealed trailers to transport pot to Wisconsin
from the Southwest, according to an affidavit filed in court by a federal
Customs Service agent.

But Adelman, ruling this week on a motion brought by Knowles' defense
attorney, dismissed the indictment against Knowles as "too imprecise" to
allow Knowles to prepare a defense.

Knowles' attorney argued that the indictment was too vague and failed to
clearly state an offense.

The indictment charged that from January 1996 to October 1997 Knowles "did
knowingly conspire with other persons both known and unknown, to commit
money laundering with the intent to promote the carrying on of drug
trafficking."

Adelman also granted a motion by Knowles' attorney to suppress a confession
Knowles allegedly made to U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration
agents just before his arrest. He ruled that throughout the interview,
Knowles was led to believe he was not a suspect and would not be arrested.

Knowles' attorney, Mark Stern, argued that Knowles was questioned without
an attorney present and that federal agents had targeted him as a "prime
suspect" to be arrested on money laundering charges but did not tell
Knowles that while questioning him.

The federal prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Sanders,
argued that letting a defendant believe he was an important witness rather
than a suspect during an interview was "a common and legal interrogation
tactic."

"There were no hot lamps or intense interrogation tactics," Sanders said.
"There was no physical contact with the defendant until after the interview
when the defendant was arrested, handcuffed and searched."

But Adelman ruled that the federal agents repeatedly mislead Knowles about
their investigation.

"Consequently, Knowles' confession was not voluntary and is inadmissible
under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause," Adelman said in his
ruling.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Warwick says that Adelman's dismissal of the
money laundering charges was a "technicality" that can easily be remedied
by filing a revised complaint.

Warwick said a decision on recharging Knowles would be reviewed by top
officials in the federal prosecutor's office and ultimately would be made
by U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Schneider.