LAWYER GRILLED ON POT RING

Mestel denies any wrongdoing

SEATTLE -- An Everett lawyer found the tables turned Tuesday as he took the
witness stand in U.S. District Court, and was questioned for 1 1/2hours
regarding his knowledge of a large marijuana-growing ring.

Mark Mestel, a veteran of more than 400 jury trials, submitted to the
questioning at a pretrial hearing in the case of two Eastern Washington men
awaiting trial on federal charges stemming from the alleged pot-growing
conspiracy.

At issue was how much Mestel knew about the drug ring, exactly how and when
the attorney provided legal representation to the men, and whether that
contact was protected by attorney-client privilege.

Lawyers for Gregory Haynes and James Denton asked Judge Thomas Zilly to
throw out evidence against the pair.

They alleged federal prosecutors stepped over the line when they recruited
Dale Fairbanks, a private investigator who had worked closely with Mestel,
to become a government informant on the case, supplying investigators with
evidence.

"The majority of the information comes from the direct violation of the
attorney-client relationship," Haynes' attorney, Allen Ressler, told the
judge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Whalley said Mestel didn't represent the pair
during the time the government's investigation was under way. Moreover, the
defendants illegally abused their relationship with Mestel, misleading him
about the ownership of a Stanwood farm where some of the marijuana growing
took place, the prosecutor said. The prosecutor on Tuesday called Todd
Hollibaugh, a co-defendant in the drug case. The former Stanwood man
alleged he, Haynes and Denton conspired to have Mestel file misleading
paperwork in a 1994 civil case connected to the drug-growing operation.
Hollibaugh went so far as to claim Mestel knew some of the information
supplied to government officials was bogus and designed to lead them away
from Haynes and Denton.

When called to testify, Mestel flatly denied misleading anyone or having
knowledge about the inner workings of the pot-growing ring. He was less
certain, however, about whether his clients may have duped him into making
fraudulent representations. "I don't know," Mestel said, his eyes
downcast. "I don't know if I was tricked or I was used."

The lawyer testified he was not actively representing either Haynes or
Denton when Fairbanks became a government informant in January 1996. But he
also said he always encouraged clients to trust Fairbanks.

"I tell my clients that he is my alter ego," he said. "If they can tell me,
they can tell him." Fairbanks and Mestel no longer work together, and
Mestel testified that had he known the private investigator was secretly
working for the government, he would have broken off ties immediately.

Before Zilly let Mestel leave the stand, he asked the lawyer to respond to
Fairbanks' testimony in an earlier hearing about alleged marijuana
deliveries from Haynes to Mestel using Fairbanks.

Mestel acknowledged that pot deliveries happened twice, and both times
involved small amounts of marijuana he had not requested. The attorney
said the first time the marijuana arrived, he threw it away. Mestel
testified that after the second delivery, he told Fairbanks to get the pot
out of his office and never bring him more.

Fairbanks is scheduled to testify today.

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