This is a story about a crush on a woman. About an alleged drug deal that no one wants to publicly discuss in detail. About a marijuana advocate and a police force that just don’t like each other.

But mostly this is a story about why four drug charges were quickly reduced to two misdemeanors.

However, there is no public concrete answer to that question.

On Oct. 12, police arrested Dean “Bear” Lari, 54, in a sting operation in downtown Haines. Then they searched his home. They charged him with selling six grams of cocaine, possessing 57 marijuana plants and having traces of cocaine and methamphetamine in his house.

In less than a week, both the marijuana plants charge and selling cocaine charge were dismissed. The other charges involving trace amounts of meth and cocaine were reduced to misdemeanors because the traces were too tiny to be felonies.

Lari says he was set up by a police informant – a woman that he has a crush on. And he believes the police have deliberately targeted him because of his advocacy on legalizing marijuana and because one officer did not like his friendship with the woman.

“This attack on me is personal,” he said.

The informant was surprised by the quick dropping of the marijuana and selling cocaine charges. She declined to be interviewed for this story, although she mentioned a couple observations. The paper is not naming the woman because she was a police informant.

Police Chief Heath Scott is puzzled that the marijuana plants charge and the cocaine-selling charges were dropped. “I don’t know why they don’t want to charge him on this,” Scott said.

John Skidmore, director of the criminal division of the Alaska Department of Law, said: “We had some concerns about admissible evidence.”

He and assistant district attorney Amy Paige, who has handled Lari’s case, declined to elaborate on what those concerns are. Paige said she is legally obligated to pursue only cases in which guilt seems beyond a reasonable doubt with admissible evidence.

Skidmore said there is a possibility that new charges might be filed.

Scott said the sting operation went by the book without any glitch.

Scott, Lari, the informant, Skidmore and Paige all declined to discuss the details of what happened on Oct 12.

The informant said she approached police about Lari, saying there is a bigger drug problem in Haines than people realize. She said she is a former addict. Lari argued she still takes drugs.

Lari charged the woman is a mutual acquaintance of him and a police officer – and that she played both parties. The same officer has hassled Lari in the past, including pulling him over on a traffic stop, Lari said.

Court records said the woman told Lari she had a friend wanting to buy six grams of cocaine, and Lari gave her a price of $275.

The pair drove to downtown Haines, where the woman took the substance – which field-tested positive for cocaine – into a store and exchanged it with police for $275, court records said.

The pair drove away, but were soon stopped by police, who arrested Lari after finding the $275 on him.

Lari said the woman had the $275 on her and gave the money to him just as the police pulled his car over. He claimed the cocaine belonged to the informant.

In the subsequent search of Lari’s house, police found two grow rooms with 33 mature plants and 24 seedlings of one inch to four inches in height, court records said.

Lari disputes that account, saying his two grow rooms are too small to handle 57 plants. He said at the time of the search, he had three almost mature plants, nine that were just starting to grow and roughly 35 cuttings from existing plants that had not grown roots yet.

Alaska law allows an adult to have up to six plants for personal use.

The Haines Borough Assembly was told that Lari’s confiscated pot plants are worth $118,000. Lari argued this amount is exaggerated.

Lari said he does not use cocaine or meth. But he has had friends in his home who have used those drugs.

Lari believes the police have burned his marijuana plants. Scott said the plants and six grams of cocaine are locked up in an evidence room with some being tested in a crime lab. None of the marijuana has been destroyed, he said.

Lari is out of custody on a $4,000 bond. He lives on disability payments after falling off a cliff.

Lari has been a marijuana activist in Haines. In 2015, he approached the borough assembly to invite it and borough officials to watch pot being smoked or to try it themselves to educate themselves about marijuana use.

Bad blood remains between the two sides.

“Heath Scott is no more a chief of police than I’m a Catholic priest,” Lari said.

Scott said: “I don’t know why the community tolerates him as they do.”

Lari admitted he has a crush on the informant. “I’m more devastated by her (than by the arrest). Even after all this, I’m still in love with her, no matter how twisted.”

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