MedicCook
04-18-2007, 04:48 PM
Lawyer: Gore ski shop manager entrapped in pot case
JOHNSBURG -- The lawyer for a ski shop manager who was arrested last week on a charge he sold marijuana said Wednesday his client was "entrapped" by a police informant.
Adam D. Hyde did not receive any money after a woman who came into the ski shop at Gore Mountain Ski Center, propositioned him for a date and "begged" him for marijuana so she could "party" with her friends, said lawyer Marc Zuckerman.
Zuckerman said Hyde may have provided her with a small amount of marijuana someone had given him earlier, but he was not selling the drug from the store as State Police indicated.
"Entrapment is encouraging a crime that would not have otherwise been committed, and this is the worst case of entrapment I've ever seen," Zuckerman said.
Hyde, 31, of North Creek was charged Friday with fifth-degree criminal sale of marijuana, a misdemeanor, for allegedly providing a small amount of marijuana to a police informant at the shop earlier this year. He has managed the ski shop at the ski center, which is run by Centerplate Inc., for at least 12 years, Zuckerman said.
Zuckerman said the woman who turned out to be the police informant was "flirting" with Hyde and the two arranged a date the day she came in the shop earlier this year. After she took his phone number, she then asked him for marijuana, and he refused her repeated requests until he gave her a "small bud" that a customer gave him earlier in the day, Zuckerman said.
She offered to give him $20, but he refused the money, he said.
"There was an independent witness, another employee of the shop, who heard the whole thing," Zuckerman said. "This case is either going to be dismissed, or we're going to trial."
Hyde is free pending prosecution in Johnsburg Town Court.
The case was investigated by the State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, which is based in Albany. The investigator who handled the case was not available at the team's office Wednesday afternoon.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/latest/doc46267fd08e3dc717398290.txt
JOHNSBURG -- The lawyer for a ski shop manager who was arrested last week on a charge he sold marijuana said Wednesday his client was "entrapped" by a police informant.
Adam D. Hyde did not receive any money after a woman who came into the ski shop at Gore Mountain Ski Center, propositioned him for a date and "begged" him for marijuana so she could "party" with her friends, said lawyer Marc Zuckerman.
Zuckerman said Hyde may have provided her with a small amount of marijuana someone had given him earlier, but he was not selling the drug from the store as State Police indicated.
"Entrapment is encouraging a crime that would not have otherwise been committed, and this is the worst case of entrapment I've ever seen," Zuckerman said.
Hyde, 31, of North Creek was charged Friday with fifth-degree criminal sale of marijuana, a misdemeanor, for allegedly providing a small amount of marijuana to a police informant at the shop earlier this year. He has managed the ski shop at the ski center, which is run by Centerplate Inc., for at least 12 years, Zuckerman said.
Zuckerman said the woman who turned out to be the police informant was "flirting" with Hyde and the two arranged a date the day she came in the shop earlier this year. After she took his phone number, she then asked him for marijuana, and he refused her repeated requests until he gave her a "small bud" that a customer gave him earlier in the day, Zuckerman said.
She offered to give him $20, but he refused the money, he said.
"There was an independent witness, another employee of the shop, who heard the whole thing," Zuckerman said. "This case is either going to be dismissed, or we're going to trial."
Hyde is free pending prosecution in Johnsburg Town Court.
The case was investigated by the State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team, which is based in Albany. The investigator who handled the case was not available at the team's office Wednesday afternoon.
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/latest/doc46267fd08e3dc717398290.txt