PROSECUTOR GETS LOOK AT FRONT LINES OF METH WAR

Highway Patrol Course Shows How It's Done And Danger Involved

Prosecutor Gets Look At Drug War's Front Lines

Sarah Donahue spends most weekdays trying to put suspected drug dealers
behind bars. But on a recent Tuesday, she was cooking methamphetamine.

Donahue, Jefferson County's assistant prosecuting attorney in charge of
narcotics cases, spent a week in Jefferson City this month to learn the ins
and outs of meth investigation. Donahue is the first prosecutor and one of
only a few women to have studied at the state's clandestine lab school, a
40-hour seminar run by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The school has
trained more than 500 meth investigators and is considered the top program
of its kind in the nation.

Donahue probably won't need to make highly potent red-phosphorous
methamphetamine again - the hands-on cooking demonstration was intended to
show police how easy it is to make meth - and she's unlikely to put to use
her training in undercover narcotics investigation or rescuing a wounded
police officer while wearing a respirator and hazardous-materials suit.

But Donahue says her new skills give her insight into the daily lives of
the drug investigators she works so closely with in one of Missouri's top
meth counties.

"It is really helpful to understand what an officer is going to see and,
possibly, be exposed to when he goes into a meth lab," Donahue said. "I'm
not going to ever strap on a breathing apparatus and kick down a door, but
it's important I get the perspective of the detectives who will."

Jefferson County is third only to southwest Missouri's Jasper County and
nearby Franklin County in the number of drug labs, ingredient caches and
meth-related dump sites discovered by police in 2002, according to
statewide crime statistics released last week.

The county's meth arrests have been high for years, and that's why Donahue
was reassigned last summer to work only narcotics cases. She's an
unofficial member of the Jefferson County Municipal Enforcement Group, a
unit of specially trained sheriff's deputies and municipal police officers
that takes the lead in nearly all narcotics investigations in the area.

The relationship Donahue has with the county's drug task force is rare, and
Donahue says it improves the techniques of both police investigation and
prosecution.

"When you're assigned all different cases, you don't have the time to meet
with the same detectives regularly. I see the task force every day, and
they can call me or I can call them if there is any question or special
concern," Donahue said.

Still, it was a big change to spend a week with more than 30 officers from
across the state to learn the tricks of the meth trade, tactical law
enforcement strategies and, in one class, tips on how police should present
evidence to prosecutors unfamiliar with methamphetamine.

Chuck Stocking, a captain with the Cass County Sheriff's Department, is an
instructor at the meth school. For one exercise, he converts the shooting
range of the Missouri Highway Patrol Academy into a meth lab that's just
exploded, seriously wounding one officer. Students need to find and rescue
a lifelike dummy in a dark and smoky room while wearing hazardous-materials
suits and respirators.

Stocking said that more prosecutors should sign up for the training to get
a safe view of what the front lines of the meth war are like.

"What we do is like baking a cake," Stocking said. "I can tell you about it
all day long; I can even show you a video on how to bake one. But you won't
get it until I bring over some cake mix and show you what we do."

Donahue agrees.

"I have a much deeper understanding now of how dangerous meth is," Donahue
said. "As a prosecutor, I never see what police have to deal with. I'm not
on the scene and, because the lab (ingredients and instruments) are so
toxic, we don't retain them, and I don't usually see them."

Missouri continues to lead the nation in methamphetamine labs raided by
police, but Donahue said that statistic was somewhat encouraging. Meth is a
nationwide problem, but police in Missouri, and specifically Jefferson
County, are catching more drug makers. She said the meth school and better
cooperation between police and prosecutors should lead to more arrests and
convictions.

"Information and education are going to be the keys to fighting this,"
Donahue said.