Pitts sentenced to prison at Law Day
WALLACE — Judge Scott Wayman addressed the criminal cases of around 20 individuals during the most recent Sept. 17 Law Day at the Shoshone County Courthouse. In addition to a multitude of drug-related offenses, the court also dealt with several property crime cases and one violent crime case.
The violent crime case centered on 40-year-old Michael Lee Pitts Jr., who was initially charged on Nov. 12, 2017, with obstructing or resisting an officer, providing false information and battery on a correctional officer/jailer.
Court records indicate Pitts Jr. committed a battery upon Shoshone County Sheriff’s Deputy by “knocking Cpl. Darius Dustin to the ground and/or forcing his face against the ground.” Cpl. Dustin received injures as a result of the confrontation.
In an apparent plea deal, the defendant plead guilty to the felony battery charge at his arraignment in June in exchange for the two other misdemeanor charges to be dropped by the Shoshone County Prosecutor’s Office. At Law Day, Judge Wayman handed down a prison sentence of two years fixed and three years indeterminate for the battery charge, plus $845.50 in fees. A total of 273 days already served in jail will be factored into the total amount of time to be served as well.
Pitts Jr. plead guilty to three other misdemeanor charges from a second separate case in February and was granted unsupervised probation, but remained in custody due to the charges from the first case.
Among the many drug cases seen Monday was that of suspected heroin dealer, 60-year-old Richard Martello of Fossil, Ore.
Martello was arrested on Aug. 17 after an Idaho State Police trooper conducted a traffic stop on him for speeding through the Kingston area construction zone on Interstate 90.
Upon further inspection of the vehicle, troopers discovered eight grams of heroin, 1/4th of an ounce of methamphetamine and less than 3 ounces of marijuana. The amount of heroin found equals out to roughly 80 dosage units on average.
Martello was initially charged with trafficking, but further investigation revealed that he had no intentions of distributing the substances.
As a result, the charges were amended to three counts of possession of controlled substance and one count of use or possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to use. At Law Day, the defendant plead guilty to one of the possession charges (heroin).
Shoshone County Prosecutor Keisha Oxendine explained that Martello has accepted responsibility for his crime and indicated he has a serious drug addiction.
“Mr. Martello is a 60-year-old male from Oregon with no prior criminal history, who was traveling with family to a wedding at the time of his arrest,” she said. “Martello was honest and forthright with law enforcement at that time.”
He is set to be sentenced on Dec. 10.
Also making an appearance for several drug-related charges was 23-year-old Taylor Bircher of Kellogg.
Bircher, along with eight others, made headlines in June when a police SWAT team arrested him in a large scale drug bust in Post Falls. In that case, he initially received myriad of different charges including trafficking heroin and methamphetamine. Court records indicate that only a heroin trafficking charge remains after most were dismissed on a motion from the Kootenai County Prosecutor.
More recently, Bircher was again arrested on Sept. 15 in Shoshone County for many of the same crimes he was arrested for in the first case, such as possession of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
At his arraignment, Judge Barbara Duggan set Bircher’s bond at $25,000, despite the state arguing for $100,000. His preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 27.