Four arrested in NE Bend on drug charges

Four Bend residents were arrested on various drug crimes in a series of events and a raid on a northeast Bend apartment this week, including a woman charged with three counts of first-degree child neglect involving children ages 5 to 9, authorities said Thursday.

Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives arrested Jason Stockton, 36, around 4 p.m. Tuesday as he was walking near the intersection of NE Purcell Boulevard and Paula Drive, said Lt. Ken Mannix.

Stockton had been the subject of a brief drug investigation and had just left an apartment at 1835 NE Purcell, where Mannix said he sold a half-ounce of methamphetamine to another person. He was found to be in possession of meth and a restricted weapon –a double-edged knife — when he was taken into custody, Mannix added.

As the investigation continued, detectives applied for a warrant to search the apartment Stockton had been in, to investigate drug-related and child neglect crimes, Mannix said.

Around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, police conducted surveillance saw Lewis Soltez, 33, arrive in the apartment’s parking lot, conduct a drug deal and drive away, Mannix said. Bend police contacted Soltez after he left and took him into custody on heroin distribution and DUII charges.

About 15 minutes later, Tiffany Warner, 29, and Robert Battles, 26, were seen leaving the apartment by car, Mannix said. CODE Team detectives stopped them near the intersection of Purcell Boulevard and Lotus Drive.

They were arrested after detectives found heroin, packaging material and drug paraphernalia on the pair and in their belongings, the lieutenant said.

Detectives raided the apartment shortly before 8 p.m., contacting several people in the apartment’s entryway and inside it, Mannix said. They included the three young children, which prompted Child Welfare-DHS involvement in the case, he added, noting that the children were released to family members..

A search of the apartment turned up a small amount of heroin, meth and marijuana, packaging material, scales, drug paraphernalia, two guns, counterfeit money and other evidence of drug sales, Mannix said.

The three arrested men remained in the Deschutes County Jail late Thursday. Stockton is charged with meth possession, distribution of manufacture and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Battle was charged with heroin possession, criminal conspiracy, frequenting a place where drugs are used and three probation violations. Soltez was charged with heroin possession and distribiution, criminal conspiracy, DUII and a parole violation.

Warner faces charges of heroin possession distribution and manufacture, conspiracy drug charges involving the meth and the three child neglect charges. She posted 10 percent of her $10,000 bail and was released Thursday afternoon, a jail officer said.

Battles has made the news several times in recent years, including a year ago when he was one of two people arrested as police they returned from the Portland area with about $3,000 worth of heroin.

Battles also pleaded guilty to a role in attempting to cover up a fatal 2007 hit-and-run crash that killed bicyclist Kimberly Ann Potter. He was not in the car but helped burn it in the woods south of Bend.