WATERVILLE SHOP RAIDED FOR DRUG PARAPHERNALIA

Police Seize Items From Maine Street Shop

WATERVILLE — Waterville police raided a Main Street specialty shop Thursday
afternoon, seizing smoking pipes, T-shirts, postal scales and stickers
advocating marijuana use.

Pandora's Box had been open less than two weeks.

"We're seizing any and all drug paraphernalia items," Police Chief John E.
Morris said from the sidewalk as detectives and uniformed police officers
executed a search warrant inside the shop.

"We're seizing anything that has to do with drugs — pipes, bongs, signs,
T-shirts," Morris said. "Anything made for or advocating the consumption
and ingestion of illegal drugs."

The store in Waterville and another in Presque Isle are owned by Joseph
Correale of Fort Fairfield. Correale's telephone number is unlisted at his
request, according to the telephone company.

An employee at the Presque Isle store said Correale was on his way to
Waterville late Thursday and was unavailable for comment.

The employee, who would not give his name, said Pandora's Box has been open
for two or three years in that town and never had a problem with local police.

Waterville police Detective David R. Caron said police confiscated 250
pipes of various size and description, including a large brass hookah pipe.

Police also seized 50 postal scales, plastic "bongs," water pipes, pipe
screens and detoxification liquids designed to flush a person's system of
illegal drugs. Also seized were T-shirts with pictures of marijuana leaves
across the front and stickers saying, "Got Weed?"

"My personal favorite was 'Work Free Drug Zone,' " Caron said.

Taken all together, according to Morris, the items seized Thursday were
evidence that the pipes, rolling papers and other smoking devices are drug
paraphernalia.

Other items of clothing and shelves of sex toys and erotic devices were not
taken. The store was closed for the rest of the day Thursday.

Evert N. Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, said
the search warrant was signed by Waterville lawyer Daniel Dubord, a justice
of the peace and a court magistrate qualified to approve search warrants.

Fowle said police and prosecutors did not try to circumvent Waterville
District Court to obtain a search warrant for Pandora's Box. He said it is
routine to go to a magistrate in nonfelony cases.

Last year, District Court Judge John Nivison ruled in favor of the owner of
another such "head shop," Happy Trails, also in Waterville.

The owner of Happy Trails at 121 Main St., four doors down from Pandora's
Box, beat the charges brought against him after his store was raided in
1999 and $10,000 worth of smoking pipes were seized by Waterville police.

Nivison ordered the return of the pipes, referred to as drug paraphernalia
by Morris and Fowle. The judge ruled police had not proven that the pipes
were intended to be used to smoke illegal substances.

Fowle and Waterville police said the case against Pandora's Box is different.

"It's not just the atmosphere that they created, it's the totality of the
circumstances," Caron said. "Combine with the products that were for sale,
this is paraphernalia."

Fowle said there is ample evidence in the case against Pandora's Box to get
a search warrant and to bring misdemeanor charges.

"The quality of our evidence in this case will be stronger than in the
Happy Trails case," he said. "I am very comfortable with the quality of the
evidence in this case."

Business owners along Main Street said Thursday that the raid comes as no
surprise.

"Good," George Gordon, owner of the Maine Made & More Shop, said when he
heard of the raid. "Customers are saying it's too bad it's on Main Street,
and Main Street isn't a place for it. It's in such a prime place on Main
Street."

Jon Jorgensen, co-owner of Jorgensen's Cafe, two doors down from Pandora's
Box, agreed.

"People seem furious," he said. "I think it's not real advantageous to have
downtown. I don't think we need that downtown."

William Arnold of North Belgrade, who owns the space that Pandora's Box is
leasing, said Thursday he did not know Pandora's Box would be selling what
police are now calling drug paraphernalia.

"I was told it was going to be T-shirts and leather jackets and that sort
of stuff," he said, adding that he will be in contact with his lawyer on
Friday. "I don't know what my legal rights are."