JUDGE QUESTIONS REWARD FOR TESTIMONY

SEATTLE -- A federal judge made it clear Thursday he is uncomfortable with
talk that the U.S. government may pay $150,000 to a former private
detective from Everett who is now a key informant in a statewide marijuana
case.

"I tell you, I'm really offended," U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly
told federal prosecutors.

Zilly said he finds it "somewhat outrageous" for the government to pay
anyone for testimony. But the judge said he's especially bothered by the
large amount of money that apparently has been promised to Dale Fairbanks,
a private investigator recruited by the government in 1996 to help
investigate a pot-growing ring that allegedly operated in Stanwood, Moses
Lake and Spokane.

"He's getting about what Ken Griffey is getting paid," Zilly said.

The judge told prosecutors to submit, in writing, exactly how much of a
reward Fairbanks has been promised, and to also research whether he can
order the amount not be paid.

Zilly's comments came at the end of the third full day of testimony in a
hearing to determine whether federal prosecutors were wrong to use
Fairbanks in the investigation.

Some of the investigation's targets had previously been represented by Mark
Mestel, an Everett defense attorney for whom Fairbanks had regularly worked
as a private investigator.

Lawyers for Gregory Haynes and James Denton, both of Eastern Washington,
have asked Zilly to dismiss the case. They have portrayed Fairbanks in
court papers as a mercenary liar who helped the government violate the
confidential relationship between lawyers and clients when promised cash.

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

Zilly has heard testimony this week about the filing of allegedly
fraudulent court documents, and the delivery of small amounts of marijuana
to Mestel.

Some of that testimony has come from Fairbanks, 38, a former Sultan police
officer who now runs a pawnshop.

He spent much of Thursday on the witness stand, being grilled about how he
kept separate the work he did as a defense investigator, and his secret
role as a government informant.

Lt. Ron Perniciaro of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office testified that
prosecutors, police and Fairbanks all knew they had to be careful in
respecting Fairbanks' work for other Mestel clients, and they never tried
to pump him for information in those cases.

"It never came up as a problem," Perniciaro testified.

That's for Zilly to decide. He scheduled the hearing to resume Tuesday, and
told lawyers on both sides that he wants to see more legal research about
the government's position that crime and fraud negate the attorney-client
relationship.

"I hope you do, because the law in this area is not entirely clear," he said.

Fairbanks said he was surprised by the judge's comments about his potential
reward.

The reward he was promised is far less than what the government could
expect to pay if it had placed him and his family in a witness-protection
program, Fairbanks said.