Will need to post $20,000 and find a third party custodian to be released while heroin dealing case is litigated.
This story originally aired on October 25, 2016.
KDLG: A 31-year-oldman charged with dealing drugs from his set net fishing site in Naknek this summer remains in custody.
Nathan Wegner and his attorney asked for a reconsideration of his bail terms, currently set at $20,000 and a third party custodian. His attorney Jon Bucholdt asked Judge Greg Miller to reduce the dollar amount and let his client seek treatment at the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center, or SAARC, while his case is litigated.
"The underlying idea of SAARC is good for him," said Bucholdt. "His problem I guess is booze, more than drugs, and that’s what SAARC is aimed at. So it’s certainly a better choice than jail for him, and if we can get into SAARC, everybody wins."
Not so, said the state’s prosecutor, ADA Alison O’Leary. She says the Salvation Army center is not equipped to handle monitoring someone accused of dealing drugs.
"Mr. Wegner was found in King Salmon with 23 grams of heroin on him, and $6700 in cash.," she told Judge Miller. "He was staying in a cabin that had 97 syringes in the trash, as well as more out behind the cabin. And then when he was arrested, the next day he was taken to the clinic for heroin withdraw. And that’s when he told the chief of police that he needed to go vomit outside, and instead ran away and stole an ATV."
Judge Miller sided with the state, and kept Wegner’s bail terms in place. He’ll need to post $20,000 and find a third party custodian to be released. He faces a host of charges alleging he was dealing heroin and other drugs from his set net cabin, and briefly escaped custody after his arrest. His alleged co-conspirator 27 year old Brandi Nikole Smith still faces similar drug charges, but is out of custody on less than $1000 bail.
Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org or 907.842.5281.