POLICE TRYING TOO HARD TO BUILD CASE AGAINST PHELPS

Columbia, S.C. - Even if a South Carolina sheriff is successful in
building a marijuana case against swimming superstar Michael Phelps, it
might be hard to make the charges stick, defense attorneys say.

The case took a turn Thursday when lawyers for two people said their
clients were among eight arrested last week and questioned at length about
the November party near the University of South Carolina where Phelps was
photographed smoking from a marijuana pipe. At the time, the men were
renters at the house.

The effort to prosecute Phelps on what would be at most a minor drug
charge seem extreme compared to similar cases, lawyers said, and have led
some to question whether the sheriff is being overzealous because he's
dealing with a celebrity.

"The efforts that are being made here are unlike anything I've ever seen
before," said Jack Swerling, a defense attorney in South Carolina. "I know
Leon Lott, I know him to be an honorable guy. I've known him for 30
something years. But the efforts here are extraordinary on simple
possession cases."

After the photo was Phelps was published Feb. 1, Richland County Sheriff
Leon Lott said his office would investigate and possibly charge Phelps,
though officials have not specified what the offense might be. Since then,
authorities have released little information, and the sheriff's department
refused to talk again Thursday.

Lott has made fighting drug crimes a central plank of his career. He rose
from patrol officer to captain of the narcotics division in the early
1990s and was well-known in the county for wearing stylish suits like the
drug agents on "Miami Vice" and driving a Porsche seized from a drug
dealer. He was elected sheriff in 1996.

Lawyers for the two men say they were questioned almost exclusively about
Phelps and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Authorities haven't contacted the swimmer, who issued an apology for his
behavior earlier this month, one of his agents said.

"Michael has not been contacted and we are not going to speculate," said
agent Drew Johnson.

Defense attorney Dick Harpootlian and fellow defense attorney Joseph
MuCulloch said deputies searched at least two houses. The men told their
lawyers the raids went down like a major drug bust, and 12 deputies burst
into the home with guns drawn, pulling small amounts of marijuana from
those arrested. Several computers and storage devices were also seized,
Harpootlian said.

The lawyers did not release the names of their clients, but Harpootlian
said that his client didn't even see Phelps smoke marijuana at the party.
McCulloch said his client was out of town, and only lived at the home when
the party happened. Both men have since moved.

"After they arrested him, they didn't ask him where did you get the
marijuana or who sold it to you. Almost all the questions they asked him
were about Michael Phelps," Harpootlian said. He added: "It was like they
were busting the biggest heroin distributor in the country."

The investigators appear to be trying to build a case against Phelps from
others - a tactic normally used to bring down drug dealers with a large
amounts of cocaine or methamphetamine, not someone who smoked marijuana
five months ago, said Chip Price, a Greenville attorney who has dealt with
drug cases for 33 years.

"Never have I seen anything like this on a simple marijuana case," Price
said.

McCulloch, who said his client was out of town at the time, doubted that
anything his client told authorities would assist them in the case against
Phelps.

"It seems to me that Richland County has a host of its own crime problems
much more serious than a kid featured in a photograph with a bong in his
hand," he said.

Investigators don't need to have the marijuana Phelps may have had that
night to make a case against him, although the lack of physical evidence
makes things a lot tougher. They will need several witnesses saying they
were at the party, smoked marijuana in that pipe and saw Phelps smoke it
too, said Swerling.

There's one more problem with the case, too. Even if Phelps is charged,
authorities may not be able to get him back to South Carolina to face a
judge. State law only allows extradition for charges that carry more than
a year in prison - and possession of one ounce or less of marijuana is a
misdemeanor that carries 30 days in jail for first offenders.

Phelps lives and trains in Baltimore, and if Richland County authorities
were serious about hauling him in on a misdemeanor drug charge, city
police would be willing to help, said Col. John Skinner, chief of patrol
for the department.

But if Phelps were arrested in Baltimore, it would be up to South Carolina
to extradite him. Prosecutors sometimes decide against bringing defendants
in from out of state to face minor charges, Skinner said.

"Is the charge serious enough in that primary jurisdiction for them to
spend the time and resources to go and bring that person into custody?
That's not a decision I could make on their part," Skinner said.