Brown gets prison time in case involving controlled drug buys

wireready_09-25-2017-10-32-02_09686_dustinbrown

Dustin Brown of Lakeview was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to drug-related charges in two cases during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.

His charges included possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and obstructing governmental operations.

In April, Brown was involved in an incident in which an informant working with law enforcement to snare drug sellers was herself snared by the very people she was working to bring down.

On April 5th, the confidential informant and law officers from the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force went to an apartment in Lakeview where Brown and Jennifer Elliott live. The CI had reported to law enforcement that Elliott had offered to sell two grams of methamphetamine for $200.

Investigators from the Drug Task Force dropped the informant off at a location near Elliott’s residence, and she walked to the apartment where the drug transaction was completed. The informant left the apartment and rejoined investigators.

During the transaction, the CI was wired with an audio/visual recording device and officers noted in the probable cause affidavit Elliott is “clearly” seen going to a back room in the apartment to retrieve the methamphetamine.

The situation at the Elliott-Brown residence went downhill at some point when the couple became suspicious their activities were being monitored by law enforcement.

When Elliott again contacted the CI, another methamphetamine buy was arranged. Elliott allegedly told the informant she did not have enough of the drug on hand to make the sale, but could go and get more. She wanted the CI to accompany her, but investigators told the informant not to make the trip.

It was decided that the CI would bring the money for the drug to Elliott, and Elliott would contact the CI when she had obtained additional supply and could fill the order.

According to court records, when the CI went to the apartment to bring the money for the drugs to Elliott, a male voice — identified as Brown’s — can be heard saying he had seen a sheriff’s vehicle in the area. Two lawmen on the Drug Task Force had set up surveillance to monitor the conversation being picked up by the wire the CI was wearing.

Shortly after the officers got set up, Brown, driving a pickup truck, came to the spot where the officers were parked and watched the officers for a few seconds and drove off.

A few seconds later, Brown came back to the area, stopped, got out of his truck and approached the officers’ vehicle. He was reported to have asked, “Why do you keep doing this — sending that girl in there to buy dope?” Brown alleged he had also seen the officers staked out on a previous buy.

When he approached them, officers said they told him they had no idea what Brown was talking about. When Brown told the investigators where he lived, they realized it was the same apartment where the CI had gone to make the drug buy from Elliott. They advised the CI by text to get out of the apartment.

While investigators met in the rear of the Mountain Home Police Department for a debriefing, Elliott and Brown pulled around to the same area, but left quickly when they realized the officers had seen them.

The officers pursued the pickup truck the couple was in, and as they were in the process of contacting a marked patrol car to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle, Brown stopped the truck voluntarily. Both Brown and Elliott were taken into custody.

On April 25th, police searched the Lakeview residence. They located plastic bags containing a small amount of methamphetamine. They also found drug paraphernalia, including several sets of digital scales.

In the second case filed against Brown, a caller reported to the Sheriff’s Office on September 3rd that a man — later identified as Brown — was asleep and unresponsive in a vehicle that had gone into a ditch.

A search of the vehicle turned up a glass smoking pipe and less than a gram of suspected methamphetamine.

Elliott is scheduled to reappear in Circuit Court Thursday.

WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI