DRUG DEALS PERSIST A YEAR AFTER XANAX SHOOTING

Merchants, Police -- Crackdown Since Killing Hasn't Helped

In the past decade, Robert Erick Heinz has watched all of his immediate
family members die in separate incidents of drug overdoses or illnesses
exacerbated by poverty and homelessness.

Heinz now might be facing his own death -- by lethal injection -- if he is
convicted of murder for the death of a man in downtown Portland one year
ago today.

Heinz, a former heroin addict who turns 35 today, is charged with two
counts of aggravated murder, first-degree robbery with a firearm and being
a felon in possession of a firearm in the death of 42-year-old Richard
Ballantine of Tillamook. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the
case, according to court documents.

His trial was scheduled to begin this month but has been postponed
indefinitely because of conflicts in the schedule of one of the defense
attorneys.

Last year during the busy noon hour, dozens of witnesses were shocked to
see a bandanna-clad gunman stand over his victim in the middle of Southwest
Broadway and fire a .22-caliber gun multiple times.

"I know the shooter. It was over Xanax," one witness said she heard the
victim utter before dying. Xanax is a prescription antianxiety drug that
some addicts use to enhance or accelerate the effects of methadone.

The highly public incident touched off a firestorm of issues that the
downtown community has been struggling with for years: illegal street drug
sales, guidelines for local methadone clinic patients and the dynamic among
panhandlers, loiterers, police and downtown merchants.

In the year since, police have stepped up patrols and conducted sweeps;
business owners are more wary of what happens outside their doors; and
several parties joined in a "good neighbor agreement," vowing to make
changes that would help prevent further incidents.

But downtown merchants, police and business people said they haven't really
noticed much change other than the typical increased activity outside on
dry, warmer days.

"From my perspective, it's about the same," said police officer Jim West, a
senior neighborhood officer downtown. The most frequent downtown drug
arrests, he said, are for heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana, with
occasional arrests for pharmaceutical drugs.

It's rare to see a firearm on someone arrested for drug possession or
distribution, he said.

Methadone treatment advocates said they fear that now, more than ever,
incidents such as last year's shooting will be more common. That's because
funding for much of the treatment for 1,850 methadone patients in Multnomah
County through the Oregon Health Plan was discontinued March 1 because of
state budget cuts.

"By no longer paying for methadone, we've put X number of people back on
the streets who have to maintain their habits through illegal means," said
Dr. Jerry Larsen, a psychiatrist at Coda Clinic, 1027 E. Burnside St.
"Whether through drug dealing or other illegal activity, that's what's
going to happen."

Cops agree. "We haven't seen a huge increase of problems" with methadone
patients, West said. "However, I'm sure it's coming just because of the
loss of the health plan. People are becoming more desperate."

Family members die of drugs

The events leading up to Heinz being charged in last year's shooting trace
back to his childhood.

He was raised both in Albany and Northern California, where he and his
family members struggled through various addictions and spent many years
homeless and in halfway houses.

Heinz dropped out of school at a young age and spent much of his time in
the drug culture of Eureka, Calif., where methamphetamine was burgeoning.

His sister, Kimberly, died of a heroin overdose in Santa Rosa, Calif., in
1994. Three years later, his brother Richard Jr. died of a heroin overdose
in Eureka. In 2001, his mother, Suzanne, died in a flophouse of pneumonia.

While he was in custody, his brother Jason was found dead of a heroin
overdose in a homeless camp in Santa Rosa. And his father, Richard, who was
with him the day of the shooting, died on a park bench in Santa Rosa of
long-term alcohol and heroin abuse. According to court documents and
interviews, Heinz made his living in Portland by illegally obtaining
prescriptions for drugs such as Xanax from various doctors and selling the
pills in the Pioneer Courthouse Square area.

Last March 11, Heinz drove downtown with his girlfriend and his father
after filling out paperwork at Allied Health Service, 808 S.W. Alder St.

Both Heinz and his girlfriend received treatment earlier that day at Hope
Clinic, 9747 S.E. Powell Blvd., and then took Heinz's father to get his
methadone dosage at Allied that morning. Both clinics treat a portion of
the 3,000 people who seek methadone treatment for their heroin addiction in
Multnomah County.

A man who was walking with Ballantine on Southwest Broadway at the time of
the shooting told investigators that in the minutes before the shots were
fired, Ballantine told him about being robbed earlier in the day at a
Washington County transit center.

When the shots were fired, dozens gathered to see the spectacle. Police
went in search of the shooter, who fled in a nearby car and eluded police.
According to court records, Heinz was caught the next day in a wooded area
of Northern California, threatening to shoot himself.

Heinz was found to be under the influence of methadone, Xanax and
methamphetamines, said police, who matched his handgun to the bullets used
in Ballantine's death.

"It's much more complicated than a downtown shooting if you start
unraveling the issues," said Laurie Bender, one of Heinz's defense
attorneys. "We're a lot more culpable as a community."

Bender said Heinz does not deserve the death penalty because his act was
not premeditated. Deputy District Attorney Don Rees said he could not
comment on the case.

Drug deals continue

One year later, change on downtown streets has been slow to come.

"My feelings are mixed," said Tim Greve of Carl Greve Jewelers, 731 S.W.
Morrison Ave., one of 30 merchants who signed the good neighbor agreement.
"The clinic and its clients are better off, but as far as overall drug
dealing and everything downtown, I don't think it's much better."

Central Precinct Cmdr. Rosie Sizer said that since the incident, police
have devoted extra resources -- added patrols and concentrated missions --
at hot spots such as Southwest Sixth Avenue and Alder Street.

"It hasn't eliminated it. But it's mitigated it to some degree," Sizer said.

Dan Lenzen, co-chairman of the Downtown Retail Council, said he sees drug
deals happen on the streets at least a few times a day and worries that the
activity might scare some patrons away.

"You'll notice heads looking around, usually in twos or threes as they're
walking around on the sidewalk," Lenzen said "Every day, I see people
walking along Second (Avenue), taking something out of their mouth, putting
it into somebody's hand. And then see some sort of transaction back.
Literally, every day."