Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Trial set in felony marijuana case

Dog-bite inquest led to charge


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Douglas C. Rhoades

A trial has been scheduled for Feb. 28 for a Bellevue man charged with felony possession of marijuana.

Douglas C. Rhoades, 52, pleaded not guilty to possession of a controlled substance at arraignment Monday in Blaine County 5th District Court.

He was charged with a felony because he allegedly possessed 3.6 ounces of the drug when his home on North Seventh Street was searched by the Blaine County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 19. In Idaho, possession of less than 3 ounces of marijuana is typically charged as a misdemeanor.

Rhoades remains free on $10,000 bond. He is represented by Hailey attorney Douglas Werth.

The Sheriff's Office reported earlier that a search warrant was executed at the Rhoades home because police were trying to establish whether two dogs living at the residence had been vaccinated for rabies. Police were interested in the dogs because they had allegedly bitten a man and his 9-year-old daughter a few days earlier.

The Sheriff's Office reported that Rhoades and 48-year-old Bonnie Nichols, who also lived at the home, were uncooperative with police regarding the dog-bite complaint and the search warrant was necessary to establish whether the man and his daughter needed to be started on rabies shots.

According to court records, Nichols was identified as the owner of the dogs. She has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of "vicious dog violations" and is scheduled for a pretrial conference on Dec. 13 in Blaine County Magistrate Court.

As it turned out, neither dog had rabies.

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com




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