Plea Bargain Gives Tavern To Indians Colville Confederated Tribes Plan To Turn War Bonnet Into A Youth Center

A plea bargain in federal court is expected to change the War Bonnet Tavern in Nespelem from a drug-dispensing scourge in the heart of the Colville Indian Reservation to a youth center.

War Bonnet owner Glenn W. Grubbs Jr., 42, of Coulee Dam, agreed last week to give the tavern to the federal government as part of his bargain with Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Ohms. Grubbs was one of 19 people arrested on cocaine-distribution charges when the tavern was raided in August.

The tavern’s closure since the raid has been a “welcome relief,” tribal Public Works Director Frank Friedlander said, speaking as a grandparent and civic leader.

“I hear people talking on the street and I think they’re pretty encouraged by the whole thing,” Friedlander said.

He said the War Bonnet has been a “social melting pot for Nespelem,” where almost everyone socialized and teenagers hung around outside the door. But tribal members increasingly shun alcohol and want to keep it away from their children, Friedlander said.

Transfer of the tavern to the Colville Confederated Tribes is part of the sentence attorneys will ask U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley to impose Nov. 17. The plea bargain calls for a six-month sentence. Grubbs may seek work-release, and the government may ask for jail time.

In exchange for Grubbs’ guilty plea to misdemeanor possession of cocaine, Ohms agreed to drop charges that Grubbs operated a drug-manufacturing establishment, that he conspired to distribute cocaine and that he used his business to promote the crimes.

Grubbs, 42, and 18 others were indicted in August on numerous drug-trafficking charges, almost all involving cocaine distribution between September 1994 and May 1996. The

charges resulted from a two-year investigation by tribal police, the FBI, the North Central Washington Drug Task Force and the Columbia River Drug Task Force.

Others who were arrested include: Andre Picard, 40, and Robert Picard, 39, of Seatons Grove; Suzette Aripa, 33, Dorian Ankney, 33, Calvin Pakootas, 43, Kevin Carden, 34, and Faith Friedlander, 23, all of Nespelem; Richard Gorr (also known as Richie Friedlander), 21, of Inchelium; Joe Leach, 23, of Malott; and Alfred Carden, 26, of Camp Desautel.

Also charged were: Naomi Bush, Larry Covington, Frank Friedlander, Steve Marchand, Allen Matt, Sealtiel Zamudio Morales, Sonny Jack and Henry St. Pierre. Their ages and addresses were not available.

Police are still looking for Jack and St. Pierre.

Covington, Faith Friedlander, Leach, Andre Picard, Robert Picard, Gorr and Pakootas have pleaded guilty.

Pakootas got six months of probation, and the rest haven’t been sentenced yet.

Ankney has requested a hearing Thursday to enter a guilty plea.

All of the remaining defendants are still awaiting arraignment or trial.

, DataTimes