Official’s Son Faces Drug Trial Cocaine Charge Could Bring Cooney, 34, Girlfriend 90 Days

Clancy Cooney, the 34-year-old son of Spokane County Assessor Sadie Charlene Cooney, faces trial next month for felony cocaine possession.

Because of his mother’s position, Cooney’s trial was assigned Thursday to a Pend Oreille County judge.

The trial is scheduled to start June 23.

Cooney was arrested early last year at his North Side home after an informer told police he saw drugs being sold there.

Police searching the house on Feb. 1, 1996, reported finding more than 12 grams of cocaine and 70 grams of marijuana. Bags of cocaine were hidden behind a false wall.

Cooney and live-in girlfriend Roxanne White, 25, were originally charged with possession of drugs with intent to deliver. Prosecutors later reduced the charges to cocaine possession. If convicted, Cooney and White face up to 90 days in jail.

The charges were reduced because the informer failed to identify either White or Cooney as the person who offered to sell him drugs, a prosecutor said.

“For all we know, he and she might have been out of the country that day,” said Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Beemer.

Beemer also said there is no evidence that the house was used regularly for drug sales.

Cooney was advised by his attorney, John Rodgers, not to comment on the case.

The defense lawyer said no one is giving Cooney a break because of his mother’s status as a county official, or his late father’s prominence as a Spokane attorney and influential Democrat.

“There’s no different treatment for him at all,” Rodgers said.

, DataTimes