Jared Albert Weeks-Combs Pleads Guilty in U.S. Federal Court

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls on May 25, 2010, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, JARED ALBERT WEEKS-COMBS, a 20-year-old resident of Wolf Point, pled guilty to possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. Sentencing has been set for August 26, 2010. He is currently detained.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebekah J. French, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

On April 20, 2009, the Roosevelt County Undersheriff discovered that drug evidence was missing from the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office’s (RCSO) evidence room. The Undersheriff asked the recently retired RCSO Evidence Custodian to inventory all drug evidence stored in the evidence room. The Evidence Custodian concluded that there were 22 items of drug evidence missing. He was able to quantify the following missing drug amounts: approximately 12 grams of methamphetamine and 12 ounces of marijuana. He also noted that $400 cash was missing. The Evidence Custodian also found nine evidence envelopes torn open – which had contained an unknown amount of marijuana.

The same day he discovered the missing drug evidence, the Undersheriff received information from a Roosevelt County Commissioner that a private citizen had reported to the County Commissioners that Roosevelt County Jailer WEEKS-COMBS had been taking drugs from the RCSO and selling the drugs to pay his rent.

The Undersheriff asked two members of his staff to review security camera footage of the jail and evidence room. This review was limited because the tape did not show the door into the evidence room and they could only review tapes for six days prior to the date they started the review. The review showed WEEKS-COMBS carrying a brown paper bag with what looked like red evidence tape from the area of the evidence room to the jail’s kitchen area. During this investigation, a Roosevelt County Reserve Deputy also learned that WEEKS-COMBS had turned off the security cameras for a period of time during one of his shifts.

The Undersheriff interviewed an inmate being held in the Roosevelt County Detention Center. The inmate admitted that WEEKS-COMBS had provided him with a syringe filled with methamphetamine and a marijuana cigarette while the inmate was being held in the Detention Center. According to the inmate, WEEKS-COMBS stole an evidence bag containing drug evidence (3.5 grams of methamphetamine) from the evidence storage area and replaced it with a new evidence bag containing sugar. Examination of the evidence bag revealed that someone had copied the information from the original sealed bag onto a second sealed bag. The Undersheriff confirmed that the substance in the second bag was not methamphetamine.

The Undersheriff also interviewed WEEKS-COMBS who admitted removing five FedEx envelopes of drugs from the evidence room in March of 2009. He also admitted taking a sack of marijuana from the evidence room and replacing it with a box of rubber gloves. He admitted replacing the methamphetamine in one evidence bag with salt, but claimed he had flushed the methamphetamine down the toilet. WEEKS-COMBS denied giving an inmate a syringe containing methamphetamine, claiming that he filled the syringe with water. An FBI agent also interviewed WEEKS-COMBS. During that interview, WEEKS-COMBS admitted that he provided an inmate with a syringe filled with methamphetamine, in addition to the water-filled syringe that he had tricked the inmate into thinking was methamphetamine on an earlier date. WEEKS-COMBS admitted that he gained access to the evidence room eight to fifteen times between February 2009 and April 23, 2009, and that he stole 21 to 22 evidence envelopes marked as containing methamphetamine or marijuana. He estimated that he had taken approximately 7.7 grams of methamphetamine and 2.5 pounds of marijuana. He also admitted having taken a wallet containing $400 in cash. WEEKS-COMBS claimed that he used most of the stolen drugs himself, but admitted providing some to friends.

WEEKS-COMBS faces possible penalties of 20 years in prison, a $1,000,000 fine and at least three years’ supervised release.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.