VANDERBILT MAN WANTS DRUG COUNTS DROPPED

An intensified effort to catch those sending drugs through the mail from
Tempe, Ariz., resulted in the arrest of a Fayette County man. Friday,
Uniontown attorney Samuel Davis asked the court to suppress evidence against
his client, Marion Steven Hill, 23, of Box 100, Vanderbilt RD1. Hill is
charged with drug possession and possession with intent to deliver. The
hearing was held before Common Pleas Judge John Wagner Jr.

Tempe Police Officer John Bier told Assistant District Attorney Lee Demosky
that police contacted all package delivery services in that area and asked
them to report suspicious parcels.

Last July 18, a delivery service reported a package smelled of marijuana.
Bier said his drug-sniffing dog reacted when he smelled the box, which was
addressed to the defendant and sent by "J. Langley." The officer got a
search warrant and opened the package, finding about three pounds of
marijuana.

Trooper Brian Crouch of the Belle Vernon barracks said after being contacted
by Tempe police, he received the box and placed a device in it designed to
go off when opened.

Trooper Danny Moy testified he dressed in a United Parcel Service uniform,
but drove a blue Mustang to Hill's home on Route 201 on July 22. Moy said he
went to the door and Hill asked him, "What's the matter, did you lose your
truck?" Moy replied that because of the UPS strike, he was using his
personal vehicle. Moy said Hill then told him, "I've been waiting for this
package."

Officers moved in as the device sounded minutes later. The phone rang as
officers arrested Hill, and the call was traced to William Bishop in Tempe.
Hill told officers that Bishop sent the package to him, Crouch said. Bier
said Bishop was arrested but isn't yet charged in the case.

Troopers found the empty box in an upstairs bedroom and the marijuana under
a bed. Investigators also collected drug paraphernalia.

Davis argued there was no evidence Hill knew the package contained
marijuana. "The way this was done, if permitted, would lead to a horrendous
application of the law," Davis argued. "The case is woefully weak. That
could be you, your honor, or anyone else."

"And if I possessed it, I would have been in violation of the law," Wagner
responded.

The judge will issue a ruling soon.