Woman Testifies In Meth Ring Case Granted Immunity, She Says Dealers Threatened Her After Her Drug Arrest

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Sunday, October 5, 1997): Correction No immunity: Cheryl M. Rogers of Spokane has not been granted immunity from drug charges stemming from a police raid of her home. An article in Saturday’s paper stated otherwise.

Drug dealers threatened to burn down a Spokane woman’s house when she and her three children were inside if she cooperated with authorities, she told a federal judge Friday.

Lori Anthony owed the dealers money and believed they would make good on their threat, she testified.

Anthony received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her cooperation, which included testifying at a hearing in U.S. District Court.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagree over the amount of methamphetamine and cocaine distributed by members of a violent drug ring.

U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley must rule on the amount of drugs involved before he sentences seven members of the ring, all of whom have pleaded guilty to drug charges.

The sentencings, initially set for Friday, have been delayed until the hearing concludes next week.

Investigators say the leader of the ring is Richard “Butch” Forrest, 38, a member of the Iron Horsemen outlaw motorcycle gang and an affiliate of the Hells Angels.

The case illustrates the rise of methamphetamine as the underworld’s drug of choice, and the violence associated with it.

Anthony, 37, said she met members of the meth ring in summer 1996. She was getting $640 a month in welfare benefits but living in a $600-a-month apartment.

Anthony said she decided to sell the drug to supplement her income.

“I’d sell it mostly to my neighbors, usually quarter-ounces,” she testified.

She said she made $300 to $400 profit for each ounce of meth she sold.

The witness identified her supplier as Forrest’s girlfriend, Cheryl M. Rogers, 25, whose home at 1314 W. Euclid was raided by police on Feb. 4.

After Rogers was arrested, Anthony said she got a call from a woman who said she was relaying a message from Rogers.

“She told me that if I testified or talked (with detectives), I’d be dead,” Anthony said. “I believed her.”

But Rogers was later granted immunity and questioned by Washington State Patrol Detective Joe Pass, assigned to a federal drug task force.

Pass testified Friday that he found drugs and drug-debt ledgers in searches of Rogers’ home and the home of Forrest’s sister, Monica Faye Forrest, 36, who lived at 2816 E. Weile and 1739 E. Olympic.

One of the ledgers, Pass testified, listed the $370 drug debt of Bart Ottosen, who was tortured and severely beaten in September 1996 by gang members.

In Rogers’ home, Pass testified, investigators also found a “narc list,” listing two dozen people arrested for drug crimes or suspected of being informers.

The detective said he found a list of drug detectives, including undercover officers, in the search of Monica Forrest’s home.

, DataTimes