New task force nets 1st bust
4 arrested near Aulne just 3 days after group forms
Staff writer
A newly formed county drug task force wasted no time making its first set of arrests early Monday.
The task force was formed Friday and is overseen by the sheriff and all police chiefs in the county.
Sheriff Jeff Soyez said that when one agency has a situation in which broader help is needed or a tipster has let them know about planned drug activity, the task force may be called together to work on the case.
“Any of the chiefs or the sheriff can activate it,” Soyez said. “Then they contact me. If everyone agrees it is a case worth using the task force together, we do.”
In the arrests Monday, officers had been tipped about the drug activity.
Task force members, armed with a warrant to search property on 150th Rd. between Pawnee and Quail Creek Rds., stopped a car headed for the address. The stop was based on the tip they were given.
Two people, Amanda L. Davis, 44, Marion, and Philip D. Heathcock, 53, Loveton, New Mexico, were arrested during the stop.
Davis was booked into jail on suspicion of possession and distribution of methamphetamine and use of a communication facility in attempted commission of a crime.
Soyez said the communication charge was for using a telephone to set up a drug deal.
Davis previously was charged in April 2020 with disorderly conduct and has had multiple cases filed against her to collect debts.
She is a letter carrier for the post office in Valley Center and formerly worked for the Marion office.
Jason Flannigan with the office of inspector general referred questions about what could happen if she was convicted to public affairs director Kevin Clolinger. His office did not return a call.
Heathcock was arrested on suspicion of possession and distribution of methamphetamine. No bond has been set.
When task force members searched the residence on 150th Rd. of Travis R. Grosse, 45, Marion, they arrested Grosse and Lesa A. Jost, 49, Marion.
Appraisal records list the property at 1734 150th Rd. as being owned by William R. and Shirley A. Grosse. Shirley Grosse is Travis Grosse’s mother and William Grosse, his father, died in 2017.
Grosse was arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia and distribution of drug paraphernalia. He was held in lieu of $10,000 bond.
Grosse previously was charged with drug cases in February 2017, September 2011, September 2008, and April 2006.
Jost was arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute. She was held in lieu of $10,000 bond.
Jost previously was charged in July 2017 with possession of methamphetamine.
Soyez said each of the four suspects had methamphetamine, totaling an ounce and half. That, according to federal drug resources, is more than 280 entry level doses of the drug.
The drug task force includes one officer each from Marion, Peabody, and Hillsboro, and two from the sheriff’s office.