DOVER SMOKE SHOP CASE HINGES ON USE OF PIPES

DOVER -- The trial of a downtown smoke shop got under way Wednesday in
Strafford Superior Court with testimony whether items seized during a raid
in March are drug paraphernalia.

The prosecution presented its case during six hours of testimony from
police officers who collected evidence from Smoke Signals and from the
investigators who analyzed the evidence.

Smoke Signals LLC is charged with five misdemeanor charges of selling drug
paraphernalia.

The raid netted 177 pipes and chillums, which are pipes used for small
amounts of smoking materials, from the store.

The five charges are distinguished by the five types of smoking devices seized.

The devices include glass pipes, water pipes, metal pipes, carburetor pipes
and chillums.

Each of the charges is a Class B misdemeanor and is punishable by up to a
$1,200 fine.

Following testimony from now-retired police Sgt. Thomas Stinglen and
Detective Tim Burt about the March 5 raid, Deputy Strafford County Attorney
Thomas Velardi called on two members of the state Attorney General's Drug
Task Force to testify about their involvement in the investigation.

Drug Task Force agent Kyle True, a Newmarket detective, explained his
expertise about different drug paraphernalia. Velardi and Jonathan Cohen,
the store's defense attorney, spent much of the day questioning True on the
different types of smoking devices.

The prosecution's questioning centered around whether the smoking devices
spread out throughout the courtroom are only for marijuana.

"I have never seen it be used for anything except marijuana," True said.

Cohen spent much of his time during cross-examination deciphering how True
distinguishes different smoking devices from each other -- style, size,
shape and what they are made from.

Through charts and even diagrams, Cohen attempted to get a set of
parameters of what defines each device.

"Based on your training and experience, how can you tell the difference
(between two similar-looking smoking devices)?" Cohen asked.

True responded: "Just by looking at it. They're obviously different in what
they look like and obviously different in what I would call them."

This is the second time prosecutors have filed charges against Smoke
Signals. In 2001, police seized hundreds of pipes and other devices,
producing numerous misdemeanor charges against the store, the owner and an
employee.

In January, Velardi and attorneys for the three defendants agreed to drop
all but one of the charges against the three defendants and reduce that
charge to a violation.

That agreement will be the subject of today's portion of the trial, when
the defense begins its case.