Chemist Who Clashed with DEA at Center of Drug Saga Appeal

A federal appeals court hears arguments Tuesday in the legal saga of two film producers fighting long prison terms and prosecutions in three states for running a nationwide synthetic drug business.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., will weigh whether Charles Burton Ritchie and Benjamin Galecki should have been allowed to call a now-former DEA chemist to testify that the substances they sold—kilograms of what some call spice or synthetic marijuana—were actually legal.

The convicts also are pressing their claim that the district court judge who barred that testimony, Raymond A. Jackson, is so ...