Chestertown Police Chief Adrian Baker has announced the arrest of Lee Allen Haas, 27, of 300 South Mill Street, for possession and intent to distribute heroin and Oxycodone.
The Kent County Narcotics Task Force raided the Hass home last night at approximately 8:30 and netted 201 small bags of heroin that weighed over 72 grams. Also seized were 10 pills of Oxycodone, a small amount of marijuana, $350 cash and a loaded rifle.
Hass is currently being held at the Kent Detention Center on $20,000 bond.
Baker said two more arrests are pending in connection with the case.
Assisting the Kent County Narcotics Task Force were units of the Chestertown Police Department, Maryland State Police, and the Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force.
Baker’s statement said two more arrests were pending in the case.
Petey Bestmom says
Let me see if I have this straight. This guy, whose arrest record for drugs goes back to 2004, is caught with over 200 bags of heroin all packaged up for sale, and he is put under a puny $20,000 bond ? What is wrong with our district court commissioners? Do they have their heads screwed on properly? This guy didn’t spend enough time in jail to get the chair warm before a bondsman swoooped in and got him out a few hours later.
Seems to me $50,000 or $100,000 would be more appropriate in a case like this. (Good work from the task force people, congrats. )
Joe Diamond says
Petey,
Cool it! It is too soon! Rest and relax! They look at flight risk and danger to the community. If you know something more about the suspects call Chief Baker. Those drugs are off the street. The Bondsman can make things uncomfortable for the druggies.
Let the professionals work. Heroin is a known killer. Its sources are known. Oxycodone is a controlled dangerous substance. That stuff came from a pharmacy. Let the professionals work.
It would be interesting to see this arrest and trial one year later.
Joe
Joe
Petey Bestmom says
Joe, yes, they are to consider flight risk and if they represent a danger to community. But you forgot they are also to take into account the subject’s prior criminal record. Like this guy. He graduated from marijuana & pills to heroin. Think that’s a good sign he is on the road to rehabilitation?
You say it will be interesting to see this case a year from now? Maybe his free lawyer (asst public defender) will again enter a plea of not criminally responsible due to Insanity. That seemed to work rather well. The state nol prossed that charge, he pled guilty to a lesser offense, was fined $495 of which $400 was written off. (Case 2L00006505)
Repeat offenders who refuse to give up dealing in illegal narcotics do not deserve kid gloves treatment! Like ridiculously low bail amounts. Mill Street is just a hop, skip and a jump to the elementary school, remember. With no drivers license, has it occurred to you just where he might concentrate his marketing efforts for the 200 bags of heroin?
If this guy had been caught with that much heroin in a stop on I-95 I guarantee he would be sitting in a jail cell under a $100,000 or $250,000 bond right now.
joe diamond says
Petey,
You know a lot about this guy that was not contained here. You have presented no surprises, however.
To pick up where you left off with the rehabilitation…………rehabilitation is not going to happen the way things are set up now. Arrests, felony convictions, drug use all exclude people from legal work. Some of it is due to a crappy economy. Employers can be very selective about who they choose to hire. The public has a right to expect safe personnel to operate their transportation, teach their children and come into their homes for service work. Still, the one place convicted offenders can earn is in the world of drug sales and related crime.
So what do you do with repeat offenders like this one? “Take off the kid gloves;” what does that mean? If you have some idea about how rehabilitation can be done please share. The War on Drugs is not going so well. We have been locking up druggies and giving long sentences to major and minor dealers. Got any ideas besides bigger bail, longer jail terms and more arrests?
Joe
Petey Bestmom says
joe diamond says:
Petey,
“You know a lot about this guy that was not contained here.”
No so. What I “know” was learned from public record available over the internet to any private citizen. Any private citizen who takes an interest, that is.
You should educate yourself on why judges in Maryland are under pressure to not sentence repeat offenders to active time. They are told over and over the prisons are already overcrowded, we don’t have the $$$ to build more, give these people probation and send them on their way! You should sit in district court more often and hear the many drug cases that are either dropped, plea bargained down, probation extended, and otherwise dealt with in such a manner so as to avoid the necessity of finding a prison bed. Either here locally or within the state penal system. And in the majority of these cases the defendants have prior CDS offenses on their records.
Why isn’t Maryland working on developing reciprocal agreements with other states? Have you heard about the huge modern new prison in the Virginia mountains which has plenty of empty cells but not enough Virginia residents to fill them? I can’t remember the name now but it can be easily looked up. Why can’t the states that have beds available help out those who don’t? Surely there is some way the administrative problems in interstate prisoner trade can be worked out. Convicts within the federal system can be moved around anywhere as the need arises. State penal systems are going to have to be allowed the same flexibility so there are no more excuses why judges aren’t putting drug dealers behind bars for a long, long time. That is one approach to the war on drugs that should be tried.
Sorry, Joe, I am just not real sympathetic to the sad plight of the drug dealers who can’t seem to find honest work. Wake up, most of them don’t want to work at a real job. They prefer crime because there are no taxes to pay.
joe diamond says
Petey,We agree about the end result we want……just disagree about how to get there.
We have been building jails and sticking people in them. It has not worked. With very few exceptions, everyone now in jail is coming out….sometime. They will hit the streets with an education gathered from other convicted persons. Care to guess what they have learned?
I have seen the damage drugs can do. Don’t want it here. But building more jails has not worked. Or is that all there is to solve the problem; build … more jails? If we could just lock all bad people up!
Joe
joe diamond says
That War on Drugs thing….with a Drug Czar….is all smoke to allow suspension of thought. We are not at war with drugs. There is now and has been for many years social problems connected to substance abuse. Part of the job description of the “Drug Czar”is that he doesn’t consider or allow federal investigation of the possibility of decriminalization of marijuana; the job requires closing of the eyes and mind.
So the best the War on Drugs can come up with is longer jail time. Funny suits for the cops and more dogs. Well, one of the realities is we don’t have the money to lock people up even if we could. Jails are expensive. They do not rehabilitate. We have to be more selective about who is put into one.
This is not the same as turning the civilization over to drug addicts and criminals. Part of the problem is limiting the influence of those who would turn this place into a very efficient prison colony.
Cool it!
Joe