PORT ANGELES — A 69-year-old Maple Valley grandmother who allegedly tried to smuggle drugs to her son, a Clallam Bay Corrections Center inmate, will have the basis of the case against her tested in Clallam County Superior Court.
Subpoenas to testify in two hearings in Pauline J. Beal’s case were issued Tuesday for 14 witnesses who are employees of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, the state Department of Corrections, State Patrol Crime Lab and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Hearings were set for March 12 on Jan. 9 to review statements made and evidence gathered during her May 17 arrest.
She has been charged with three counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and one count of third-degree attempting to introduce contraband.
According to a probable cause statement, the prison’s drug-sniffing police dog helped ferret out heroin and methamphetamine in Beal’s possession by smelling a towel on which Beal sat while at the prison.
A 3.5 hearing to challenge the admissibility of statements and a 3.6 hearing on the admissibility of evidence will be ruled on by the judge.
“Instead of having to bring in witnesses for the 3.5 hearing and separately for the 3.6 hearing, we decided it would better to consolidate,” said Steve Johnson, deputy prosecuting attorney, adding some of the witnesses are coming from sizable distances away.
Many of the same officers will be involved in both hearings, Johnson added.
In the third of three continuances, a trial date of April 20 was set Jan. 9. A trial date was first set for Aug. 19.
Beal told authorities that she thought she was bringing tobacco into the prison for Michael Donovan Beal instead of 1.38 ounces of drugs and six Suboxone strips, according to the probable cause statement.
Authorities were alerted to an attempted transfer of contraband after intercepting phone calls between mother and son, according to the affidavit.
Beal went to the prison with her husband and granddaughter.
While being processed for the visit separately in an interview room, she said she was bringing tobacco into the prison.
She was asked to sit on a towel that was sniffed by the police dog, which alerted for drugs.
Beal was taken to a restroom where she removed four packages containing the drugs and Suboxone from her waistband area, according to the statement.
Beal said that in keeping with her son’s instructions, she met May 15 with a woman unknown to her who gave Beal two packages.
“She did not know what the packages contained before she met with the female,” according to the affidavit.
“Once she retrieved the packages, she assumed they contained tobacco.”
Beal said she knew bringing tobacco into the prison was illegal and that it was for her son, according to the statement.
The evidence was transported to the Forks office of the sheriff’s office, where it was repackaged and reweighed before being logged into evidence, according to the statement.
Beal has been out on $2,500 bail since May 20, three days after her arrest.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.