Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 Source: San Luis Obispo County Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Tribune Contact: P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406-0112 Fax: 805.781.7905 Website: http://www.thetribunenews.com/ Author: June Rich, The Tribune Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n215/a05.html Also: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n824/a04.html , http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n639/a05.html SLO MAN CONVICTED OF DRUG CHARGES Massive Drug Sting in 1998 Could Mean Up To 20 Years In Prison For Defendant LOS ANGELES - A San Luis Obispo man was convicted Monday of federal drug charges, just 18 months after similar charges stemming from the same arrest were dropped. In both cases, Howard Leasure, 42, argued that a methamphetamine lab found on his property was actually a Native American sweat lodge. Leasure was convicted in a federal district court in Los Angeles on Monday of allowing members of a drug ring to manufacture methamphetamine -- an estimated $1 million worth over a one-year period -- at his address on the 1000 block of O'Connor Way in San Luis Obispo. Federal prosecutors said that more than 200 pounds of the drug was manufactured at the San Luis Obispo site in 1997 and part of 1998, and that the multi-jurisdictional sting led to closure of six meth labs and the indictment of more than two dozen people. Leasure's attorney, Derrick Li, did not return phone calls Tuesday. Leasure and another renter, Nickolas Kopp, 63, both first were arrested in March 1998 in a bust that yielded many materials commonly associated with meth labs: 70 cans of freon gas, red phosphorus, kitty litter, a hydraulic press, and 300 pounds of sodium hydroxide. The most contentious item found near Leasure's mobile home was 10 pounds of a caustic soda. At the time of the arrests, narcotics agents thought the material contained methamphetamine. Five days later, tests had determined that the drug was not present in the sodium mix. Local prosecutors said they dropped charges against Leasure, not because of the misidentification of the caustic soda but because Leasure's case was ensnared in a larger, federal investigation that spanned from Mexico to the Central Coast. Officials with the county's Narcotics Task Force said pursuing the case locally would have meant divulging key evidence in a then-ongoing federal investigation After the charges in San Luis Obispo were dropped, Leasure issued a stinging rebuke of local law enforcement. He described his feelings during the bust to The Tribune: "I just sat there calm as can be thinking: 'Boy, are you guys a bunch of buffoons. Just wait until you find out it's not what you think it is.'" Leasure said he believed that his arrest was a by-product of "small-town politics." He accused San Luis Obispo's police chief, Jim Gardiner, of staging the bust to coincide with his bid for the county Sheriff's office. Leasure filed a lawsuit against the city and county of San Luis Obispo, the Narcotics Task Force, the Sheriff's Department, various detectives from the San Luis Obispo Police Department, as well as the police chiefs in Grover Beach and San Luis Obispo. Leasure's attorney in that suit, Cayucos-based Douglas Michie, did not return several calls for comment on the status of the case. A spokesperson from the federal prosecutor's office, Tom Mrozek, said a motion to dismiss the suit was scheduled for a hearing this week, but he was not sure of its outcome. Nikolas Kopp pleaded guilty to the federal drug charges in June 1999. He has not been sentenced. Leasure's sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 25. Both men face maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D