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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA]
#5783018 - 06/23/06 05:14 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Sawin faces new drug bust June 23, 2006 - berkshireeagle.com
PITTSFIELD — Kyle W. Sawin, whom the commonwealth twice failed to convict of selling marijuana to an undercover police officer in a controversial Great Barrington drug sweep of two years ago, was arrested by the Berkshire County Drug Task Force on Wednesday and charged with numerous drug distribution offenses.
Sawin, 19, of Lebanon Mountain Road, Hancock, was also found in possession of a bag containing just under one pound of psilocybin mushrooms worth approximately $4,000, according to law enforcement authorities.
It is the biggest single seizure of the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history.
He was also found with a quantity of marijuana when he was arrested in Sheffield, authorities said.
Sawin has been charged with three counts of distribution of marijuana, one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one count of distribution of psilocybin mushrooms, one count of possession of psilocybin with intent to distribute, and one count of being a minor transporting alcoholic beverages.
Sawin was released on $500 bail, pending arraignment in Southern Berkshire District Court in Great Barrington on Monday.
It is alleged that Sawin sold marijuana in Great Barrington on June 18; marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms in Stockbridge on June 20, and marijuana in Sheffield on June 21.
Further criminal complaints against Sawin for distribution and possession of both marijuana and other drugs will be filed in Central Berkshire District Court in Pittsfield. Those complaints are in connection to a drug transaction that occurred at Sawin's residence in Hancock on June 16, and a search of that same residence on Wednesday.
Sawin's arrest followed a six-day investigation by the county's drug task force, but it came on the same day that his former attorney, Judith C. Knight, officially announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for Berkshire County District Attorney. In the Democratic Party primary on Sept. 19, Knight will oppose incumbent District Attorney David F. Capeless, whose first-time drug offender prosecutions she has criticized.
Knight, who no longer represents Sawin, termed the timing of Sawin's arrest a "remarkable coincidence."
"I don't know what to make of it," she said yesterday.
Sawin was one of seven first-time drug offenders among the 17 Berkshire County residents who were arrested in the Great Barrington drug bust of 2004. The investigation generated a tremendous amount of controversy after Capeless announced his intention to prosecute the first-time offenders for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school or park, a charge that carries a minimum mandatory two-year jail sentence.
Capeless' decision spawned the formation of Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice, a citizen's group based in Great Barrington that opposes the district attorney's policy of pursuing the school-zone charge. CCAJ member John Whalan is Knight's campaign manager.
Reached in Worcester yesterday, where he was attending a court hearing, Capeless declined to comment on Sawin's arrest.
Sawin, the first of the Great Barrington defendants to go to trial, was charged with three counts of distribution of marijuana and three school-zone charges. His first trial in July 2005 ended in a mistrial. The commonwealth elected to retry Sawin on the same charges two months later, but that time he was acquitted.
CCAJ member Peter Greer called the arrest a "real tragedy for the Sawin family." Greer said he believed that if the district attorney's office had given Sawin the option of undergoing treatment or performing community service — instead of pursuing an "all-or- nothing approach" at trial, where acquittal or a two-year jail sentence were the only options — that "this sad day may not have come to pass."
The CCAJ has always advocated for "appropriate justice," Greer said, saying that those arrested should be "held responsible," but given "appropriate punishments."
"It didn't happen here," Greer said. "If it did we wouldn't be in the position that we are in today."
Knight said that she was "heartbroken" when she heard that Sawin had been arrested again because she cares deeply for his family.
"It does not change my resolve to work towards a better way to address people with substance abuse problems and give them the tools that they need to get back into society and stay clean," she added.
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OJK
Stranger

Registered: 06/08/03
Posts: 10,629
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: veggie]
#5783067 - 06/23/06 06:09 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Sawin, 19, of Lebanon Mountain Road, Hancock, was also found in possession of a bag containing just under one pound of psilocybin mushrooms worth approximately $4,000, according to law enforcement authorities.
/me moves to Pittsfield
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SuperD
Cacti junky


Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: OJK]
#5783214 - 06/23/06 08:32 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Odiumjunkie said:
Quote:
Sawin, 19, of Lebanon Mountain Road, Hancock, was also found in possession of a bag containing just under one pound of psilocybin mushrooms worth approximately $4,000, according to law enforcement authorities.
/me goes out to the field 50 yards away to pick up $4000 worth of cubes
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   D Manoa said: I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
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Microcosmatrix
Spiral staircasetechnician


Registered: 10/20/05
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: veggie]
#5783259 - 06/23/06 09:05 AM (17 years, 7 months ago) |
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A pound? Biggest seizure? I thought it was gonna say a U-haul truck full or something. That ain't shit!
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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: veggie]
#6321416 - 11/30/06 01:03 PM (17 years, 2 months ago) |
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Sawin admits he sold drugs State seeks maximum of 5 years November 30, 2006 - berkshireeagle.com
PITTSFIELD — Kyle W. Sawin finally faced drug charges that he couldn't fight.
The 19-year-old Hancock resident, whom the commonwealth twice failed to convict of selling marijuana to an undercover police officer following a controversial Great Barrington drug sweep two years ago, pleaded guilty in Berkshire Superior Court yesterday to 11 charges stemming from a separate drug investigation in June.
Sentencing is scheduled to take place Thursday, Dec. 28, at 2 in Superior Court. Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini released Sawin on $500 bail pending sentencing.
Sawin's attorney, Dennis M. Buckley of Great Barrington, said the evidence compiled against Sawin in June by the Berkshire County drug task force, which includes both audio and video recordings of drug transactions, ruled out going to trial again.
"We studied the evidence," Buckley said. "I think the police did a very thorough job. They have controlled buys — audio on one and audio and video on another."
First Assistant District Attorney Paul J. Caccaviello said that the commonwealth is seeking a two- to three-year state prison sentence for Sawin on the two most serious indictments:
Distribution of psilocybin (mushrooms) and possession of psilocybin with the intent to distribute. The maximum penalty for both charges is five years in state prison, he said.
The commonwealth is seeking concurrent jail sentences on eight other charges, Caccaviello added. The final charge, a minor transporting alcoholic beverages, is punishable by a $50 fine.
Agostini said he will not exceed the commonwealth's sentencing recommendation without giving Sawin the opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.
Buckley asked the court to allow the probation department to evaluate Sawin for a report that the judge can use as a reference guide for sentencing. The probation department will evaluate Sawin's background, then suggest programs to which he could be referred if sentenced to jail, Buckley said.
Sawin pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of marijuana in connection with the sale of the drug in Hancock on June 16 and to one count of distribution of marijuana for a sale that occurred in Great Barrington two days later.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of psilocybin and to one count of distribution of marijuana in connection with a sale of those drugs in Stockbridge on June 20.
He pleaded guilty to three additional charges: distribution of marijuana, possession of psilocybin with intent to distribute, and being a minor transporting alcohol, in connection with an incident in Sheffield on June 21.
He also pleaded guilty to possession of LSD, possession of psilocybin and possession of marijuana, which police filed after executing a search warrant at his apartment on Lebanon Mountain Road on June 21.
When Sawin was arrested on June 21, he was found to be in possession of a bag containing just under 1 pound of psilocybin mushrooms, worth approximately $4,000, according to law enforcement authorities. It is the biggest single seizure of the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history.
He was arrested on the same day that his former attorney, Judith C. Knight, officially announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for Berkshire district attorney. Current District Attorney David F. Capeless defeated Knight in the primary in September.
'Needed a little money'
Caccaviello said the drug task force used an informant to set up the drug transactions with Sawin, an admitted drug user with a criminal record.
Shortly before he was arrested, Caccaviello said Sawin told an undercover police officer who accompanied the informant to a drug transaction that he could get more marijuana to sell but that he had to keep the transaction "low-key because he got in trouble the last time."
Following his arrest, Sawin told officers that he didn't know why he decided to resume selling drugs after his first two trials except that he "needed a little money."
"He said it was harder to stop selling drugs than it was to stop doing drugs," Caccaviello said.
Sawin was one of seven first-time drug offenders among the 17 Berkshire County residents who were arrested following an investigation into drug activity in Great Barrington's Taconic parking lot during the summer of 2004. The investigation generated a tremendous amount of controversy after Capeless announced his intention to prosecute the offenders for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school or park, a charge that carries a minimum mandatory two-year jail sentence.
Sawin, the first of the Great Barrington defendants to go to trial, was charged with three counts of distribution of marijuana and three school-zone charges. Represented by Knight, his first trial, in July 2005, ended in a mistrial. The commonwealth elected to retry Sawin on the same charges two months later, but that time he was acquitted.
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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: veggie]
#6408255 - 12/29/06 02:12 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Update...
Sawin dealt 2 years December 29, 2006 - Berkshire Eagle
Offender was lightning rod for drug controversy
PITTSFIELD — Kyle Sawin, who became the face of a local protest against minimum-mandatory jail sentences and a focus of the district attorney's race, was sentenced yesterday to two years in the Berkshire County House of Correction.
Sawin, 19, pleaded guilty in November to 11 drug charges, including distribution of marijuana and possession of psilocybin mushrooms with the intent to distribute. Yesterday, Berkshire Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini imposed a two-year jail sentence that will be followed by three years of probation.
Agostini said the guidelines call for a jail term of 12 months or fewer, but he was convinced by a pre-sentencing evaluation of Sawin that the defendant is addicted to the thrill of selling drugs.
"In reading this evaluation, I don't have very much doubt that we will be seeing Mr. Sawin again," Agostini said. "He took pride in his work at selling. ... I just have no sense that Mr. Sawin is going to be able to deal with his issues."
Yesterday's sentencing capped a two-year saga that began in the fall of 2004, when Sawin was among 18 people arrested following an undercover investigation into alleged drug dealing in downtown Great Barrington.
Sawin, who was 17 at the time, was one of seven young people who faced stern, two-year jail sentences for selling marijuana in a school zone. Those cases became a cause celebre, sparking a protest movement from a group that named itself the Concerned Citizens for Appropriate Justice, and prompting Sawin's then-attorney, Judith C. Knight, to make an unsuccessful run against District Attorney David F. Capeless in this year's Democratic primary.
Sawin was tried twice on charges that he sold marijuana to the undercover officer while in a school zone. The first prosecution ended in a mistrial on July 22, 2005. In September 2005, a jury found him not guilty.
The Berkshire County Drug Task Force said it commenced another investigation into Sawin after a confidential informant told officers that he had been buying drugs from Sawin since the day after the young man was found not guilty.
During a six-day span that began on June 16, police said, the task force watched as the informant bought drugs from Sawin four times, including during a meeting at Sawin's apartment on Lebanon Mountain Road in Hancock.
Sawin was arrested on June 21 after his car was stopped in Sheffield. Police found almost a pound of psilocybin mushrooms with a street value of $4,000 — the largest amount of mushrooms seized in the task force's 23-year history — as well as marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
When Sawin pleaded guilty on Nov. 29, his attorney, Dennis M. Buckley of Great Barrington, said the task force had a near iron-clad case, including video footage of Sawin selling drugs.
The Berkshire District Attorney's office was seeking a harsher sentence of two to three years in state prison.
"His addiction is not to drugs," First Assistant District Attorney Paul J. Caccaviello said, "it is to selling drugs. It is the allure of selling drugs that brought the defendant back to this court in so short a time."
Sawin even boasted of his ability to sell, Caccaviello said, telling the probation department that he could convince a "90-year-old woman with no teeth to buy chocolate."
And while Sawin may have pleaded guilty and admitted his own crimes, Caccaviello said, he refused to name his suppliers.
Buckley, Sawin's attorney, painted a portrait of Sawin as a 5-foot-2 kid with an identity crisis. He stressed that, in the eyes of the law, Sawin is a first-time offender and asked Agostini for four years of probation, with a one-year suspended jail sentence as the sword over Sawin's head.
"We have a kid who is trying to fit a persona and has certain psychological issues he has been dealing with throughout his life, including identity issues," Buckley said. "(He) wonders what people think of him, so he puts on a persona, saying, 'Here is what I am. I am a big man.' "
The footage of Sawin selling drugs to the informant shows the teenager donning a baseball cap worn backwards, bare-chested under an unbuttoned vest, and wearing baggy cargo pants, Buckley said, a costume ripped from the stereotype of a drug dealer.
But in reality, Sawin is a small, vulnerable kid, Buckley said. "I don't know what happens to him in prison, and I worry about that."
Agostini presided over Sawin's two trials on the marijuana charges. He said he emerged from those with two distinct impressions — first, that Sawin had "dodged a bullet, and I was hopeful that he would recognize that."
Second, Agostini said, he was impressed with the devotion of Sawin's parents, who offered their son emotional and financial support seldom seen in the Superior Court. "It is really discouraging that he would turn around and do this to them," Agostini said.
While most drug defendants sell to support their own habit, Agostini said, Sawin was a rare case who sold for fun and took pride in his work, even though he knew the drugs would harm his customers.
"These were not situations he was forced into," Agostini said. "He took it upon himself to do this."
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rawtoxic
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: veggie]
#6409159 - 12/29/06 08:54 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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And while Sawin may have pleaded guilty and admitted his own crimes, Caccaviello said, he refused to name his suppliers.
AT LEAST HE's A REAL MAN.
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Carbon_Black
Pause/Break



Registered: 05/15/06
Posts: 125
Loc: State, Country, etc. ';)
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: rawtoxic]
#6409192 - 12/29/06 09:02 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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WORD Ratting someone out should be a capital offense. Hang narcs, not Saddam! *(may happen at midnight)
-------------------- As Sure As The Sun Will Shine
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Cloud9
I don't feel, and it feels great



Registered: 07/03/03
Posts: 1,554
Loc: between here and there
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: rawtoxic]
#6409929 - 12/30/06 04:44 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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hes got some balls, at least hes got that.
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royer
±±±±±±±±±±

Registered: 05/15/06
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: Cloud9]
#6409944 - 12/30/06 04:58 AM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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man afoaf lives 15 min down the road from there.
1 pound thats it?? most of the people with a martha or greenhouse could pull that in a first flush
-------------------- ================================================= if you have any questions please feel free to pm me , thx :-)
Edited by royer9864 (12/30/06 05:02 AM)
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Blek
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: royer]
#6410859 - 12/30/06 03:31 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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Shhh. :P
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p0ng
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Re: Biggest seizure of psilocybin in the task force's 23-year history [MA] [Re: Blek]
#6414613 - 12/31/06 09:34 PM (17 years, 1 month ago) |
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1 pound !!! hahaaaa
cops probably started tripping out when they saw that.
-------------------- Co-President of http://www.FantomFitness.com
Edited by p0ng (12/31/06 09:35 PM)
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