Two Bend Residents Arrested, Heroin Seized

Two Bend residents allegedly returning from the Portland area with about $3,000 worth of heroin purchased there were pulled over and arrested by drug agents north of Bend late last week, officers said Wednesday.

Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives stopped Robert Jennings Battles, 25, and Jaclyn Anne Huffman, 21, around 9:40 a.m. last Friday as they were traveling in a 2007 Nissan Frontier pickup near the corner of Deschutes Market and Dale roads, en route to Bend, said Lt. Ken Mannix.

The detectives had identified the pair as allegedly being involved in heroin distribution in Central Oregon, Mannix said.

The arrest of the pair concluded a nearly 2-month investigation by the CODE Team into heroin manufacture and distribution, he said.

Evidence seized during the stop included just over 15 grams of heroin, with a street value of about $3,000, as well as packaging material, drug records and other evidence, Mannix said.

Both were lodged at the Deschutes County Jail on heroin possession, distribution and manufacture charges. Battles posted 10 percent of $50,000 bail and was released that day; Huffman remained held Wednesday on $35,000 bail.

Battles has been in the news at least twice in recent years, once pleading guilty to a role in attempting to cover up a fatal 2007 hit-and-run that killed Kimberly Ann Potter. He was not in the car but helped torch it in the woods south of town.

Battles received a 5-year sentence despite apologizing to the victims and his parents and seeking forgiveness from the judge. Two years later, he was arrested on a parole violation warrant