PRIVATE DETECTIVE GIVES EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY

Informant Tells Court Of Pot, Friendship, Betrayal

SEATTLE -- A former private investigator at the center of the federal
government's case against an alleged drug ring broke down in tears
Wednesday as he testified about watching an Everett lawyer receive
marijuana from one of the men charged in the case. Dale Fairbanks wept
openly in U.S. District Court as he told Judge Thomas Zilly about the
alleged drug delivery to Mark Mestel in October 1995.

The testimony came on the second day of a hearing to determine whether
federal prosecutors erred in 1996 when they recruited Fairbanks to help
investigate former Mestel clients for an alleged conspiracy to grow
marijuana and hide drug money behind legitimate businesses.

Mestel is not charged with any crime.

Attorneys for defendants Gregory Haynes and James Denton have asked Zilly
to dismiss the case.

In court papers, they've portrayed Fairbanks as a mercenary liar, who after
being promised $150,000, helped the government run roughshod over the
confidential relationship between lawyers and clients.

Fairbanks and other witnesses who testified Wednesday presented a different
picture. The former Sultan police officer, who now runs a pawn shop, said
he enjoyed working as a private investigator on Mestel cases for most of
this decade.

Fairbanks said he became concerned in 1994 when Mestel befriended Haynes
and allegedly took legal steps to hide the Eastern Washington man's
involvement in a large marijuana farm near Stanwood.

Fairbanks said concern turned to sadness in October 1995, when he drove
Mestel to Cle Elum and watched Haynes give the lawyer a baseball cap
brimming with marijuana. The pot allegedly came from hidden farms Haynes
ran in Eastern Washington, including a large underground operation near
Moses Lake.

Fairbanks testified that Mestel said nothing when Haynes placed the pot in
Fairbanks' car. Mestel later took the marijuana home, he alleged.

"It hurt my feelings," Fairbanks testified through tears. "... I was
surprised. I was surprised Mark would put me in that position."

Mestel was not in the courtroom Wednesday. Judge Zilly on Tuesday
questioned Mestel about alleged drug deliveries, and the lawyer said Haynes
did send him small amounts of marijuana on at least two occasions, but that
he'd thrown away the drugs and taken steps to stop further deliveries.

The respected Everett attorney denied ever having received a hatful of
marijuana from anyone.

Prosecutors on Wednesday questioned Fairbanks about the drug delivery
allegations in part to explain his motives for approaching drug detectives
in late 1995 and early 1996 and agreeing to work as a confidential
informant.

Fairbanks said the government didn't offer him payment until he was already
deeply involved in the case. The former investigator also acknowledged that
he wasn't easily supervised, and at one point violated federal law by
deciding on his own to help Haynes illegally acquire two fully automatic
machine guns.

Fairbanks was later granted immunity for the gun deal.

Duane Stickels, an agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration,
testified Fairbanks did not relish the idea of becoming an informant.

"I don't think he wanted to be a confidential informant," Stickles
testified. "He was involved in a situation that was criminal and he didn't
like it and he wanted to come forward."