WAMEGO ? Two men charged in connection with raid on what officials say was meant to be a drug lab are on trial in Topeka.

Authorities raided an old missle complex in a rural area northwest of Wamego in November 2000 and reportedly found enough chemicals to produce millions of doses of LSD.

Two men from the San Francisco area — William Leonard Pickard, 57, and Clyde Apperson, 47 — were charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute, and possession with intent to distribute more than 10 grams of LSD. They could face up to life imprisonment if convicted. Both men say they are innocent.

At the time of the raid, Drug Enforcement Administration agents said the confiscated chemicals could produce at least 36 million doses of LSD, although later estimates put that number higher. The DEA said no LSD was produced at the site.

The men’s trial has been under way since Jan. 13 in U.S. District Court in Topeka. After 28 days, 20 witnesses and 900 pieces of evidence, federal prosecutors rested their case March 4.

‘Educational pursuits’

Much of their prosecution was based on testimony from DEA officials and Gordon Todd Skinner, who received government immunity.

Prosecutors portrayed Skinner, Pickard and Apperson as part of a ring that manufactured LSD and sold it to a California distributor who shipped some of it to Europe.

Government witnesses said Pickard made LSD in Colorado and New Mexico. The lab moved to Kansas — first, in December 1999, to an old missile base in Ellsworth County and then in July 2000 to Wamego.

But Pickard, who began his testimony March 11, tells a different story. He said his research of illegal substances and relationships with drug manufacturers were tied to educational pursuits. He said he exchanged letters with a clandestine lab chemist and collected large amounts of data about illicit drugs as a graduate student at Harvard University.

His attorney, William Rork, said his client’s testimony might continue another two weeks.

A faded sign warns visitors to keep out of an old Atlas-E missile base outside of Wamego. Two men from the San Francisco area have been on trial since Jan. 13 in connection with a 2000 raid at the complex that uncovered enough chemicals to produce at least 36 million doses of LSD.

“My strategy is to put the truth on and all the evidence,” Rork said. “My client is absolutely innocent.”

Rork said he planned to show Skinner had “led on” Pickard by saying he knew someone who would bankroll Pickard’s research projects.

In 1996, Skinner told local officials he was going to establish a spring manufacturing plant at the silo, which he apparently did for about two years. The site was sold last year at a sheriff’s auction for $140,000.

Pickard has a history of run-ins with the law, including drug charges, and a reputation as an underground drug chemist, according to prosecutors. Apperson reportedly has no criminal history.

Nocturnal traffic

Even before the arrests, neighbors of the former missile silo had been suspicious of traffic, activity and unfriendly attitudes of people around the old complex.

Things started to make sense in November 2000, when authorities raided the site — and said they found enough chemicals to make millions of doses of LSD.

From their home across from the site’s entrance, retirees Nolan and Lorena Carlson noticed the activity and unfriendly folks.

“They never waved. They didn’t bother us and we never bothered them,” Nolan Carlson said.

He said about a year before the raid, people at the site started locking the front gate, only opening it to let vehicles in and out.

Lorena Carlson said she had friends who would take walks past the gate and up the roadway toward the complex. But those on the grounds told her friends to leave.

“It just didn’t make sense,” she said. “They acted like something was wrong. They wouldn’t let you in.”