Prosecutors say court ruling hurts ability to punish meth makers

The ruling by the Kentucky Supreme Court involved Ronald Kotila, who was found with 288 antihistamine tablets and most other ingredients to make meth. In reversing his conviction for manufacturing meth, the court said the law did not apply to him because he did not have a crucial ingredient in the meth-making recipe - anhydrous ammonia.

The court ruled in June 2003 that the law creating a charge of manufacturing meth meant defendants had to have all of "the chemicals or equipment," not just some of them. The law still allows suspects to be arrested if they are caught making the drug.

"It has really gutted the ability of law enforcement to prosecute these cases," Hopkins County Commonwealth's Attorney David Massamore told The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

After his conviction was reversed, Kotila, who is now 58, pleaded guilty to possession of a meth precursor and possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He has since been released. He could not be reached for comment.

At least a half-dozen other convictions have been reversed by the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court because of the Kotila ruling, according to court records.

Prosecutors say that savvy meth manufacturers are exploiting the ruling by not assembling the ingredients in one location until they are ready to cook up a batch.

In a case from Logan County in November, the Supreme Court seemed to raise the standard further still for prosecutors, noting that 10 specific pieces of equipment are required to manufacture meth through one popular method.

Prosecutors say the Kotila ruling has eliminated the leverage they once had on so-called "squirrels" - the runners who gather chemicals and equipment and bring them back to the manufacturer.

"Before we were catching the squirrels and hammering them, and they would many times give up the names of the cooks," Massamore said.

Justice William Graves of McCracken County, who sided with the majority in the Kotila case, has since decided that such a "narrow and unreasonable interpretation" had a "destructive effect on the enforcement of drug laws" and did "violence to the concept of common sense."

But defense lawyers say the law as previously enforced was unreasonably harsh, given that many defendants to whom it was applied were addicts. Defense advocates also note that meth is the only drug in Kentucky for which manufacturing is punished more severely than trafficking.

Kentucky lawyers and some lawmakers say prosecutors have other meth-fighting laws in their arsenal, including one enacted in 2002 - possession of a meth precursor, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

"The commonwealth's attorneys cry because of the Kotila case but they are still indicting and convicting offenders," said Rep. Gross Lindsay, D-Henderson.

Kentucky State Police spokesman Capt. Brad Bates said the Kotila ruling has made life more difficult for police, but "the bad guys aren't getting away."

Gail Cook, Calloway County's top prosecutor and president of the Kentucky Commonwealth's Attorneys Association, said prosecutors have found alternatives, such as charging defendants, if there are two or more, with conspiring to manufacture meth.

Cook said the commonwealth's attorneys' association has drafted a proposed bill that would define manufacture as possessing two ingredients with the intent to make the drug.