Drug Debtor Describes Abduction, Torture Testimony Comes At Hearing That Will Figure In Ring Members’ Sentences On Drug Charges

He was abducted at gunpoint, sprayed with paint, tortured with a candle and threatened with death - all over a $370 drug debt, a Spokane man testified Thursday.

“I thought I was going to die that day,” Bart Ottosen recalled in describing his abduction to U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley.

When he was finally released, Ottosen said, he feared people he bought drugs from would track him down and kill him if he told police about the September 1996 beating.

He didn’t report it until he heard news reports last November that his suspected attackers were arrested in a drug raid, Ottosen said.

The 25-year-old man testified at a hearing where federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are disputing the amount of drugs that seven people distributed.

The amount involved is used in determining prison terms under federal sentencing guidelines.

Defense attorneys questioning Ottosen showed him police reports suggesting he didn’t begin cooperating in the drug investigation until he was arrested for a knife assault on his roommate. The assault charge eventually was dropped.

The hearing is scheduled to continue today before Whaley sentences six of the defendants.

The defendants all have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and various drug charges. Five of them are in jail.

Those involved are: Richard A. “Butch” Forrest II, 38, of Valley, Wash.; his sister, Monica Faye Forrest, 36; Jack Thomas Lamere, 29; Cheryl M. Rogers, 25; Deborah Longo, 27; Shannon Green, 25; and Debra L. Cochran, 29, all of Spokane.

Drug task force investigators, including Washington State Patrol and Sheriff’s Department detectives, say the methamphetamine ring is one of the most violent organizations ever busted in this area.

Its members have ties to the Hells Angels and Iron Horsemen outlaw motorcycle clubs, illegal firearms and $200,000 worth of seized methamphetamine and cocaine.

The case developed a year ago when sheriff’s detectives looking for stolen property served a warrant at 2815 E. Weile and made a series of arrests.

After hearing about that, Ottosen contacted authorities.

He testified that he began using drugs in 1993, frequently using methamphetamine. He said he made three meth purchases from Monica Forrest, not always paying on the spot.

When he didn’t make good on his $370 debt to her, a group of men abducted him at gunpoint at his girlfriend’s house in the Valley, he testified.

Ottosen said his abductors blindfolded him, forced him face-down into the bed of a pickup truck and shaved his head.

He was driven somewhere, apparently to a house in north Spokane. There, a collar was placed around his neck.

He was blindfolded and forced into a basement room, where he was beaten on the buttocks with 2-by-4s and baseball bats after his pants were pulled down.

“Somebody then pulled my mask off and sprayed me in the face with blue spray paint,” he said in response to questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Ohms.

The assailants then sprayed a racial slur on his back. Ottosen, who is white, said he attempted to flee up the stairs but was shoved back into the basement by other attackers.

“They asked me if it hurt,” Ottosen testified. “They asked if I was bleeding.”

They tied his wrists and ankles behind a pole as the torture continued.

One man held a machete to his throat, the witness recalled. “He told me he should just kill me.”

Instead, the attackers held a burning candle to his testicles.

Finally, he was handed a portable telephone. Ottosen said he was ordered to pay his drug debt by the man on the phone. “It was Butch Forrest.”

Ottosen said he had no money. But the next day he gave his 1984 Buick Skylark to Monica Forrest in an attempt to settle the drug debt, he testified.

She took the car keys and told him to get her the vehicle registration. Ottosen said she didn’t ask about his visible injuries.

“She just had a smirk on her face,” he testified.

, DataTimes