PROMOTER FACES DRUG CHARGES

Summerfest Organizer Glenn Mattina Sold 200 Doses of Ecstasy, Police Say

BILOXI - A federal grand jury has indicted a Biloxi music promoter on a
charge of possessing ecstasy with intent to distribute.

Officials on Wednesday confirmed that Glenn Mattina Jr., 36, was indicted
earlier this month on a charge of intention to distribute 200 doses of
ecstasy, an illegal "club drug" often associated with all-night rave
parties. Two hundred doses have an estimated street value of $6,000.

Mattina has been widely known in the Coast entertainment industry since at
least 1995, when he organized the area's first festival for alternative
music fans.

The indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on July 9 charges
Mattina with selling the substance in Harrison County on Nov. 28, 2001.
Authorities would say only that the incident reportedly happened in Biloxi
and additional charges are likely against Mattina and other people.

Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and a special crime unit of
the Biloxi Police Department arrested Mattina at his home on July 16. He
was held without bond at the Harrison County jail until the next day, when
he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Louis Guirola Jr. and entered a plea of
not guilty.

Mattina was released on a $25,000 bond.

Billy Miller, Mattina's attorney, said the case involves "a confidential
informant who allegedly made a buy from Mattina. This is a 'garden variety'
charge, an allegation of a one-time sale, something we see every day in the
federal court system."

Miller said he did not know the location where the buy reportedly occurred.
Federal prosecutors, he said, typically don't release "discovery," the
evidence they plan to present, until 30 days after an arraignment.
Mattina's arraignment was July 17.

Mattina organized the region's first Alternative Music Festival in 1995 and
helped introduce radio station WCPR-FM and its alternative format to the
Coast market. In June, he organized Summerfest 2002 at the Mississippi
Coast Harley Outdoor Theater in Biloxi. That event was billed as one of the
largest music festivals in South Mississippi.