Accused drug dealer fraudulently used St. Lawrence County-owned property as bond collateral

Andy Gardner, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·3 min read

Mar. 19—CANTON — An accused drug dealer was released from custody after fraudulently using a county-owned property as collateral for a $50,000 bond. He has since been arrested and is incarcerated at the county jail in Canton.

St. Lawrence County Court Judge Gregory P. Storie approved the release of Dirk Brown, 44, Ogdensburg, after conducting a bond inquiry on March 8.

Brown had been arrested on March 6 in a multi-agency drug investigation which police dubbed Operation Jet Black. He was charged with second-degree conspiracy, as well as third-degree criminal sale and possession of controlled substances and jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail. The bust led to six other arrests and turned up more than a pound of cocaine, $4,000 cash and 24 grams of fentanyl.

The property in question is 921 Caroline St. in Ogdensburg, which the St. Lawrence County District Attorney's Office had obtained earlier this year through civil asset forfeiture. DA Gary M. Pasqua said his office was able to use that process to seize the house because it had been the site of repeated illegal drug transactions.

A person named Amanda Hull used the property as collateral to secure a $50,000 bond through the bond company Financial Casualty and Insurity Inc. Pasqua said the estimated sale price of the property is only $30,000.

Usually, the judge orders the bondsman to notify the DA's office that the bond inquiry will take place. The inquiry could happen in the judge's chambers, or in open court on the record.

Pasqua said his office was not notified of Brown's bond review. It was not done in open court and it was not placed on the court calendar. He said the court hasn't been notifying his office of bond inquiries. He said when he found out they were being left out, his office made a formal request to the county court that they be notified anytime an inquiry takes place with a bondsman present. Despite that, Pasqua said his office received no notification that the judge was reviewing Brown's bond paperwork on March 8.

"We have a right to review the (bond) paperwork. We were not made aware of this paperwork and we did not have the ability to review it," the DA said when reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon. "It's been quite a while since we've been notified of any bonds. We noticed it was happening about a month ago. We made a request of the court to be sure we were notified these were happening."

Pasqua said his office became aware of the fraud after an assistant district attorney found out Brown had been released on bond.

"We asked for a copy of the paperwork and we found out 921 Caroline Street had been used as collateral," he said. "There was no hearing. There was nothing done in open court. It wasn't done in open court where we just didn't show up."

As for how the county property being used as collateral ended up being approved, Pasqua said that's a question for Judge Storie and the bond company. Court staff on Tuesday said neither the judge nor his staff are allowed to make comments to the press.

Financial Casualty and Insurity Inc. could not be reached by phone and did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Brown was free until March 12, when he turned himself in and was remanded back to jail.