Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Sacramento Bee Contact: P.O.Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852 Feedback: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html Website: http://www.sacbee.com/ Forum: http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.html FEDERAL COURT REVERSES POT CONVICTION SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An Idaho man convicted of growing marijuana was granted a new trial by a federal appeals court, which said the government used evidence collected at 17 pot farms in his trial while linking him to only one. Salvadore Valdez-Velasquez was arrested in a task force sweep of 17 pot farms in Idaho. His arrest took place at the "Ola" site, the first of the 17 raided farms. At his trial, the government introduced evidence collected at all 17 farms, including millions of dollars worth of pot and several fireams, and won a conviction despite frequent objections from the defense. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that the prosecution had little evidence linking Valdez-Velasquez to 16 of the 17 farms and should not have been allowed to use evidence collected there. "In this case, the district court clearly abused its discretion, and we need not engage in any delicate balancing," said the ruling. "The evidence of other sites .. was of little probative value to any material issue." "The failure to tie Valdez in with the other growing areas left the jury free to speculate about the scale of his involvement and may have needlessly inflamed their passions against him," the ruling added. The case was No. 98-30210. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart