Quiet Cul-De-Sac Concerned Since Return Of Neighbor Some Moran Prairie Residents Fear For Their Safety

Moran Place residents say a neighbor’s drug arrest in January is threatening to destroy the sense of community they’ve worked hard to develop.

Michael B. Beavers, 23, was arrested after officers found drugs, guns and money in his house at 2403 E. 59th Court.

According to the search warrant, months of police work came to a head Jan. 7 when Spokane Regional Drug Task Force officers searched the house Beavers rented. They believed Beavers was importing marijuana from Canada to sell locally.

Officers found and seized three ounces of marijuana, $90,900 in cash, drug paraphernalia, two cars, furniture, a semiautomatic rifle, a pistol-grip shotgun and three handguns. Beavers, a felon with convictions for theft and criminal trespass, is prohibited by law from possessing firearms.

Beavers was released from jail pending an investigation into the weapons possession and possible money laundering, which includes Sharon Gray, his girlfriend, said Deputy James Gladden.

Now, Beavers is back home, and the once-harmonious community is unsettled and divided. That, as much as the arrest itself, is what concerns the neighbors.

“Neighbors do not feel safe in their own neighborhood, children cannot go outside without constant adult supervision,” said a cul-de-sac resident who asked not to be named. “It goes to show that it can happen in any neighborhood, even in those you would least expect it.”

Neighbors, divided on how to deal with the situation, are spliting into quarreling factions.

“It’s getting really ugly,” said the president of the Moran Place Homeowners Association, who asked not to be named.

“People are calling each other up and calling each other names,” he said.

Initially, members met and voted not to talk publicly about Beavers. Some were afraid property values might go down in the upscale neighborhood or that Beavers might retaliate. Some emphasized the fact that Beavers is innocent until proven guilty.

However, others felt that Beavers should be confronted and have spoken with law enforcement and the media.

The homeowners association president said neighbors now are providing investigators with license plates of cars visiting Beavers and reporting suspicious activity.

Neighbors are critical of the landlord, Spokane attorney Julie Harrington, who lived in the house two years before. They blame her for allowing Beavers to stay after being notified of circumstances they feel merit his eviction.

“I feel disappointed that she, as a past citizen of the community, would let them live here,” said Moran Place resident Kris Baird. She and her husband, Dave, live several houses down from Beavers and worry about their children’s safety now. They are not so much concerned with Beavers as the company he might keep.

The home association president said he has talked to Harrington about evicting Beavers.

Harrington said she sympathizes with residents, but has her back up to a legal wall.

“It’s not that I’m against them,” she said. “It’s just that there’s only so much I can do until (Beavers and Gray) are charged with something.”

If that happens, she said, they would be evicted immediately.

She has spoken with task force investigators frequently, she said, and they will not confirm when, or if, they will press charges against Beavers.

Until then, Harrington has placed the house up for sale for $225,000, and will let Beavers, his girlfriend and their child stay through May, when the lease ends.

According to court documents, Harrington told investigators Beavers paid her $7,700 up front to rent the 3,200-square-foot house for six months.