Judge Finds Informant’s Hefty Payoff Offensive

An apparent federal government offer of $150,000 to a private detective who became an informant in a large marijuana case has upset a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly said Thursday he found it “somewhat outrageous” for anyone to be paid to testify, but the amount Dale Fairbanks stands to receive especially raised his ire.

“I tell you, I’m really offended,” Zilly said. “He’s getting about what Ken Griffey is getting paid.”

(The Seattle Mariners star actually was paid nearly $7.9 million last season.)

Zilly directed government lawyers to report in writing when the proceedings resume Tuesday how much Fairbanks was promised and to conduct legal research on whether the judge could block that payment.

Fairbanks, 38, a former Sultan, Wash., police officer who now runs a pawnshop, agreed two years ago to assist in the investigation of a pot-growing operation that authorities say extended from Stanwood to Spokane.

He said he was surprised that his payment would be an issue, explaining that it would cost much more to put him and his family in a witness-protection program.

Zilly has heard three days of testimony on defense claims that the use of Fairbanks violated the attorney-client privilege. Some of those under investigation in the pot case were previously represented by Mark Mestel, a lawyer for whom Fairbanks regularly worked as a private eye.

Lawyers for Gregory Haynes, owner of a farm near Warden, and James Denton have asked Zilly to dismiss the case.

Government lawyers have argued that no attorney-client confidences were breached, saying those charged in the pot case criminally abused their relationship with Mestel in earlier legal proceedings.

Zilly told them they had better be able to support that claim with prior court rulings “because the law in this area is not entirely clear.”

Snohomish County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Perniciaro testified Thursday that prosecutors and police knew they had to be careful and never tried to pump Fairbanks for information on his work for other Mestel clients.