METH MAY BE A TARGET

Candidates For Prosecutor Want To Go After Labs

Two candidates for Kanawha County prosecutor say the office isn't doing
enough to crack down on methamphetamine producers.

Republican Bill Charnock and Democrat Bill Forbes both told Daily Mail
editors Wednesday they would prosecute more meth makers if they win.

"Somebody needs to get out with a big stick and send the message that if
they want to do this they better get out of the county or go to jail," said
Forbes, the county's prosecutor from 1988 to 2000.

The candidates said the way the office is responding to the county's
growing number of methamphetamine arrests is just part of a raft of
problems now bogging down the prosecutor's office. Both men said Prosecutor
Mike Clifford has cut special deals with certain defendants and driven down
morale with his personal and political problems.

Clifford, who has been accused of engaging in tactless sexual banter with
female employees and launching questionable investigations into political
opponents, decided against running for re-election after beating an
impeachment attempt last year.

"My opinion is that office needs an enema," said Charnock, the head of the
state Prosecuting Attorneys Institute. "We need change in that office from
top to bottom."

Charnock, 35, of Charleston will face Forbes, 53, of Charleston or Democrat
Tom Ciccarello, 73, of South Charleston in November's general election.
Forbes and Ciccarello are facing off for the Democratic nomination in next
month's primary.

Ciccarello, a prominent criminal defense lawyer who left retirement a
couple of years ago to become a part-time prosecutor, did not attend
Wednesday's meeting because of a death in the family.

In a telephone interview after the meeting, Ciccarello said he wants to
change the way the prosecutor's office handles cases, too.

"Serious and violent crimes should be punished severely, and I don't think
that's being done," he said. "I think there's a lot of plea bargaining in
serious street crimes which only goes to slap the hands of those offenders."

Forbes, who was driven out of office four years ago on the heels of a
scandal over his secret lawsuit seeking to overturn his son's suspension
from George Washington High School, said he would make "substantive
changes" to the office.

He said he's "paid the price" for his personal and political mistakes, and
"so has the public."

"This is not about whether you like me, this is about whether or not
somebody's down there doing their job protecting children, protecting
victims, protecting women in that office," he said. "Somebody has to do
these things, and I have done it, and I think I am the best candidate to
restore it to its integrity."

Both he and Charnock said the office, under Clifford, has been too willing
to cut deals with criminals. Sometimes, they said, it results in criminals
getting less punishment than they deserve.

"I don't know the rhyme or reason behind some of the offers being made,"
Charnock said. "I think we need to send a message to the defense community
that when an offer is made by the prosecutor's office, if it's not
accepted, that we're willing to try the case and get a conviction."

All three candidates said they would devote resources to cracking down on
methamphetamine makers. Arrests for the homemade stimulant are on the rise
this year, with police in Kanawha County uncovering more labs than ever before.

"Meth labs are very dangerous," Ciccarello said. "To have one in your
neighborhood is very scary, not only from the standpoint of the people
involved in it, but (from) the destructive quality of the ingredients,
because they can explode and catch fire."

Police say that happened Tuesday in a house on Charleston's West Side. If
firefighters hadn't responded quickly, the blaze could have spread to two
neighboring buildings.

Both he and Forbes say the best way to chase the crank makers away is to
prosecute more people. Ciccarello says "there would be nothing wrong" with
creating a special grand jury to consider nothing but methamphetamine and
other drug cases. Forbes promised to devote a significant amount of his
first month in office to prosecuting methamphetamine cases.

Forbes criticized Clifford's office for only getting a handful of
indictments against meth producers.

In contrast, prosecutors in neighboring Putnam County have indicted people
connected to approximately 30 labs in the last year.

"It's all going in and it's not coming out," Forbes said. "Somebody needs
to do something now."

Charnock agreed.

"You can't tell me that there's a barrier around the county where meth labs
aren't an issue," Charnock said. "We've got the law to do it, it just has
to be done."

Clifford's office says more charges will be handed down in the next few months.

"My guess is we've only just begun to prosecute the meth cases," said
assistant Prosecutor Phil Morrison, Clifford's top aide.