SAWIN CASE RETURNS

PITTSFIELD - The school-zone drug-dealing case against Kyle Sawin of Otis,
whose first court case ended with a hung jury in July, will begin today
with jury selection for the new trial in Superior Court.

After the mistrial, District Attorney David F. Capeless said he intended to
retry during the September session. Sawin's case is one of several that
have sparked a prolonged critique of Capeless.

Judge John A. Agostini, who presided over the original trial, will hear the
case again.

Sawin, 18, is charged with two counts of selling marijuana to an undercover
police officer on three occasions in the summer of 2004; he also faces
three counts of committing a drug offense in a school zone, which carries a
minimum mandatory two-year jail term.

The first trial lasted eight days. Defense attorney Judith C. Knight raised
an entrapment defense, which questioned the veracity of the undercover
officer involved in the drug buys with Sawin and with 17 others who were
allegedly making deals in and around the Taconic parking lot in Great
Barrington last summer. She also challenged the testimony of two other
young men charged in the investigation last year, who are cooperating with
the prosecution in hopes of having their own charges reduced.

On the stand, her client admitted to the drug sales but said that he felt
he was being harassed and coerced by the police officer involved. Several
police officers testified regarding drug activity in the parking lot, and
emphasized their steady surveillance of the undercover officer as he
purchased drugs from Sawin.

The officer's purchases ranged from marijuana to cocaine to ecstasy and
ketamine over the course of the summer, but deals with Sawin involved
marijuana only. A group of South County residents has organized to protest
Capeless' uniform use of the school-zone charge for all defendants, saying
that those with marijuana sales and no prior records, such as Sawin and six
others, should be spared the school-zone charge and its mandatory jail
time. Capeless' critics, organized under a group called Concerned Citizens
for Appropriate Justice, have held public protests and spent thousands on
newspaper advertisements and, now, a billboard advertisement in Great
Barrington, as well as numerous letters to the editor.

Still others have come to Capeless' defense with letters and a petition
drive, saying that the district attorney should aggressively enforce the
law without favor, and that if citizens oppose his tactics, they should
initiate changes in the school-zone drug law itself.

Jury selection in the case is set to begin today in Superior Court; the
trial could last until sometime next week.

Prosecutors Richard Locke and Paul Caccaviello handled the case in July on
behalf of Capeless.