By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

The 14 boxes that Steve Reed patiently delivered in July and August are the size of a ream of 8.5-by-11-inch, 20-pound copy paper. Each contained more than 500 pages and 28 exhibits explaining the role of each recipient in the fraud on the court that Coeur d’Alene resident Wiley Hunter alleges.

The exhibits are painstakingly detailed and are introduced with a paragraph; “I am suing the State of Idaho for the clear and convincing evidence of material facts.”

In the motions to vacate the judgment that sent him to prison for a decade, Hunter states, “The evidence proves Deputy Prosecutor Ann Wick, officer of the court, ISP Detective Terry Morgan, ISP Trooper Ron Sutton, State Witness Misty Whited, and Richard Shabazian all knowingly and willingly are accused of committing felony criminal violations … defense lawyers, John Redal, Doug Phelps, James Siebe … and investigator Ted Pulver, all knowingly and willfully were illegally concealing favorable evidence of material fact from Hunter. Their conduct was particularly egregious characterized by perjured testimony and false fabrications.”

Hunter names Gov. Brad Little, whose office was also served, because the governor “is responsible for the Idaho State Police.”

The suit names First District Judge Lansing Haynes — a former Kootenai County prosecutor — whom Hunter accuses of not having jurisdiction to oversee Hunter’s criminal case because it had been assigned to another judge. Hunter alleges Haynes made rulings based on false evidence, and that the First District Court Judge denied Hunter a new hearing after Hunter brought previously undisclosed evidence during the post-conviction process.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh is named for his lack of oversight of Deputy Prosecutor Ann Wick, now a U.S. attorney in Spokane, whom Hunter has accused of fabricating evidence.

Morgan and Sutton are accused of lying to the court and manufacturing evidence. Redal, Siebe, Phelps and Pulver are accused of concealing evidence and working on behalf of Wick while being paid by Hunter.

Shabazian, a retired Coeur d’Alene auto mechanic, is accused of lying to the court when he testified on behalf of the state that Hunter’s rental car had a ventilation system that drew air from the trunk, where the marijuana had been concealed, into the front of the car’s passenger compartment, where Trooper Ron Sutton allegedly smelled the faint odor of marijuana. Sutton testified he was unable to smell pot when talking to Hunter through the driver’s-side window after pulling over the Impala on Labor Day weekend.

Hunter contends Sutton did not walk to the Impala’s passenger side during the arrest, something that would have been shown in the DVD recording of the incident, had it made it into evidence.

The evidence was repeated in court to convict Hunter, who later used documents from Chevrolet, the car’s manufacturer, to refute Shabazian’s testimony.

The new evidence did not prompt the court to re-open the case.

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Hunter was arrested on a warm September day in 2007 after he and a Lake City High School football standout named Charles Ray Storlie were stopped by Sutton on Highway 95 near Honeysuckle Avenue.

Both men already had criminal histories. Storlie’s were mostly alcohol-related offenses. Hunter, who sold Harley Davidson motorcycles and high-end cars to dealerships and individuals, including in Canada, had been convicted of a felony for illegally bringing more than $167,000 of unaccounted-for cash over the Canadian border. He spent four months behind bars.

After the arrest, Morgan testified Hunter had been the subject of police investigations for more than a decade because he was suspected of renting cars in Coeur d’Alene and using the rentals to traffic marijuana from Canada into North Idaho and parts south, selling the high-dollar pot to wealthy clients in Arizona.

Hunter and Storlie were stopped near Honeysuckle Avenue after Morgan had ordered Sutton to pull over the Impala for speeding and improperly changing lanes. No evidence was ever presented regarding the claim.

Hunter said he was driving the speed limit on what was then a two-lane highway. He was caught in Labor Day traffic. And he asserts he was paying rapt attention: He had 75 pounds of marijuana in his car.

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Morgan had his suspicions, but was unable to arrest Hunter for years. He referred to Hunter as a “department project,” who was suspected of smuggling top-notch hydroponically grown marijuana from British Columbia.

Morgan, a veteran officer and investigator, had ordered Sutton to pull the Impala over around 1:30 p.m. for driving 75 mph in a 65 mph zone, according to Sutton’s report.

Sutton later testified that he could not detect the odor of marijuana coming from inside the car when he spoke to Hunter through a rolled-down window.

In his report filed after the incident, Sutton wrote he had later smelled a “very faint odor of marijuana” coming from the front passenger’s side.

Morgan called a U.S. Forest Service drug-detection dog to the scene. Police say the canine alerted to the smell of marijuana in the trunk, despite the marijuana having been double-bagged and twice heat-sealed before the cannabis bags were slathered with wheel grease and tucked inside two hockey bags.

Morgan popped the Impala’s trunk to reveal 75 pounds of high-grade B.C. bud.

No traffic citations were written.

Police reports said probable cause was initially obtained when Sutton smelled a faint odor of marijuana on the passenger side of the car. The scent of pot was released from the passenger side window because a ventilation system in the trunk blew air into the car’s cabin on the right side of the vehicle, according to testimony in Coeur d’Alene’s First District Coeur brought by an expert mechanic, Richard Shabazian, which was later disproved.

Defense attorney Peter Jones of Coeur d’Alene, who briefly represented Hunter, said in a deposition that the phony trunk ventilation system was used as evidence by Morgan to get marijuana convictions.

“We had a couple of big marijuana cases, and the car ventilation was an issue in a couple of them,” Jones said.

Hunter claims his attorneys wronged him when they failed to bring evidence supporting his claims, and failed to compel the state for the DVD.

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The series concludes Monday. Reach the reporter at rbartholdt@cdapress.com