By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A golf ball-sized chunk of methamphetamine was found inside the Lewis County Jail and authorities say they have traced it back to … Robbie Russell.
Russell, 46, who is being held on three pending cases, was booked into the Chehalis facility in late August after the owner of Jail Sucks Bail Bond Co. decided to revoke Russell’s bonds and brought Russell to the jail.
Robert Shawn Russell
Russell denies bringing the drug into the jail, and volunteered to tell authorities how it got there, but, after he was charged yesterday with delivery of a controlled substance, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meager said, “I’m not wild about (his) story.”
The charge is a class B felony.
When the accused appeared before a judge yesterday afternoon, his bail was set at $20,000. He is scheduled to make his plea on the charge next Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.
Charging documents offer two versions of how the meth got inside the lock-up facility, including Russell’s statement a fellow inmate walked by, gave him a handshake and slipped a packet wrapped in paper into his hand. Then Russell gave it away, and gave more away again when it came back into his possession, according to charging documents.
Deputy Prosecutor Meagher said he doesn’t know how the dope got into the jail, but Russell implicated himself as delivering it when he spoke to the detective.
Charging documents offer the following allegations:
It began early last week when one of Russell’s cell mates was caught with the golf ball-sized chunk and then two days later when another cell mate was found in possession of 1.9 grams of methamphetamine after a drug dog was brought in.
Those two inmates both pointed to Russell as the original source of the drug.
Timothy L. Rasmussen and Timothy Baloga spoke to detective Jeff Elder.
Baloga said Russell told him he brought the drugs into the jail with him when he first arrived, hidden “up his kiester”.
Baloga said Russell gave them to Rasmussen, making a deal Rasmussen would take them back out of the jail when he got out, giving half to Russell’s wife and keeping the other half. Rasmussen corroborated some of the latter part of that story.
Rasmussen, 54, from Aberdeen, was charged Monday with possession of methamphetamine. It’s not clear if Baloga has been charged with the same.
Russell, however, describes several times he tried to get rid of the meth, including giving one portion to his cousin and leaving another portion in the bathroom by the handicapped stall and telling Rasmussen he could find it there.
Russell told the detective the original handshaker contacted him again, saying somebody needed to pick up an item in an empty potato chip bag in his cell’s garbage can. It was brought to Russell while he was in the bathroom and he initially concealed it on his body and then placed it in a cup of liquid soap, left it in the bathroom and told Rasmussen about it.
“Russell stated he advised Rasmussen not to give it to anybody inside the jail and to just hang onto it until he was released,” charging documents say. But, Russell told the detective, Rasmussen started handing the drugs out.
Russell said he did tell Rasmussen to give them to his wife, but he was going to notify authorities about Rasmussen having the drugs. And he did.
On the morning of Sept. 27, Russell told a jail lieutenant Rasmussen had a large amount of drugs.
Russell, whose last address was in Centralia, has at least 20 pending felony charges, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
His last felony conviction in Lewis County was in 1998. It was for possession of methamphetamine.
Russell also was implicated by the sheriff as a person of interest in August’s triple homicide in Salkum, but has not been charged with any crime in that case.
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Want to read more about Robbie Russell? Just type “Robbie Russell” or “Robert Russell” in the search box near the top right on the home page. He comes up in about 15 different stories in less than four months, including a mid-June arrest where police allegedly found a tennis ball-sized amount of meth in his possession.
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