POT GROWER TELLS ALL IN FIGHT OVER LEGAL RIGHTS

SEATTLE -- In 1996, Gregory Haynes was named Man of the Year in the tiny
Eastern Washington hamlet of Warden.

On Tuesday, he sat in a federal courtroom in Seattle and explained in
detail how he grew large amounts of marijuana in a Stanwood barn and in
five shipping containers buried beneath his uncle's Grant County alfalfa
field. Haynes made the admissions as part of a bid to convince U.S.
District Court Judge Thomas Zilly to throw out federal drug conspiracy and
money laundering charges against him.

His pitch was based largely on the federal government's decision to use
former Everett private investigator Dale Fairbanks as a key informant in
the case. Some of the investigation's targets had previously been
represented by Mark Mestel, an Everett defense attorney for whom Fairbanks
had regularly worked as an investigator.

Haynes and his co-defendant, uncle James Denton, contend Fairbanks'
involvement in the case helped the government trample on their rights to a
confidential relationship between lawyers and clients.

Federal prosecutors, however, have argued that no attorney-client
confidences were breached, partly because the alleged pot growers
criminally abused their relationship with Mestel in earlier legal
proceedings.

Zilly on Tuesday heard his fourth full day of testimony in the case, which
has probed allegations of fraudulent documents being filed in court and the
delivery of small amounts of marijuana to Mestel.

Closing arguments, and the judge's decision, are expected today. Haynes
testified Tuesday with the understanding that prosecutors would legally be
unable to rely on his testimony as their chief evidence against him at
trial. Haynes testified that from 1994 to 1997, he paid Mestel several
thousand dollars for legal representation, and believed the attorney-client
relationship extended to Fairbanks as well.

The Warden man said that when his Stanwood pot farm caught fire in 1994,
one of the first things he did was make sure that Mestel represented him
and potential codefendants.

He also dismantled his underground marijuana farm in Warden. But Haynes
testified he resumed growing marijuana underground there in 1997. He said
he felt safe because Fairbanks told him law officers had ceased
investigating the 1994 Stanwood case.

"Dale told me everything was fine," Haynes said. "It was a done deal. ...
That he was my 'in,' and could protect me." By that time, Fairbanks had
already been working as a government informant for about a year.

Under questioning from assistant U.S. attorney Doug Whalley, Haynes
acknowledged that he felt Fairbanks shared some of the blame for the Warden
marijuana farm being reactivated.

Fairbanks testified tearfully last week that he decided to assist the
government in its investigation after Haynes attempted to recruit him into
criminal activity and used him as a conduit for sending Mestel small
amounts of marijuana. Haynes also testified about the drug deliveries
Tuesday, but said Mestel didn't ask him to send the pot, and never
acknowledged receiving any. Mestel last week testified that Haynes sent
him marijuana, but said he threw away, and turned away, the drug.