Bad
Bust in
Southern Oregon?
Grants
Pass, OR – On September 26, 2006, at about 9:30 a.m.
the Josephine County Interagency Narcotics Team served a search warrant
on Discount Smokes and Beer in Grants Pass and the Elk City Market in
Central Point. Detectives with JOINT claimed to local media that people
using their Oregon Trail Card (Welfare) were purchasing methamphetamine
(meth) at the Grants Pass location. The Grants Pass Dailey Courier front
page article was titled, “Police say employee at GP store sold
meth to Oregon Trail Card Users.” The Medford Mail Tribune top
front page article was titled, “Cops: Store clerk rang up meth.”
What sensation, what prosecution, what guilt!
Discount Smokes and Beer in Grants Pass
Harvinder
Singh (Harvey), owner of both locations was stunned by the search and
subsequent arrest of his nephew and employee 22-year-old Gurtejpal (Paul)
Singh who recently came to the states from India. Harvey Singh told
the US~Observer, “The police didn’t find any drugs at our
stores because we don’t have any and we have never sold drugs.”
Paul
Singh was charged with 7 counts: Identity Theft, Computer Crime, Unlawfully
Using a Food Stamp Benefit or Food Commodity, Identity Theft, Computer
Crime and Unlawfully Using a Food Stamp Benefit or Food Commodity. The
alleged double charges are supposedly for two separate dates the alleged
crimes occurred but what about the drug charges that were front page
news in both the Grants Pass Daily Courier and the Medford Mail Tribune???
No one has been charged with any drug crimes to date.
The
US~Observer began its investigation of this case on September 29, 2006
and have found nothing even remotely connected to the selling of drugs
from either store location to date. We are following numerous leads
on police informants who we believe at this time were used to set up
the Singhs’. We are confident at this point in our investigation
that Paul Singh is innocent of any drug related activity and our investigation
is on-going concerning the charges related to misusing Oregon Trail
Cards.
Presumed
innocent until proven guilty is a thing of the past and this case is
the perfect example. Harvey Singh has had to shut down his Grants Pass
store, his family has suffered irreparable damage due to the instant
publicity produced by law enforcement in concert with local media and
Mr. Singh is now forced to spend many hard earned dollars to protect
his nephew, who needs an interpreter to correctly understand the English
language. During a recent Josephine County Circuit Court hearing Judge
Michael Newman informed Singh and a family friend who was present to
interpret that the court would provide Paul Singh with an interpreter
when he appears for an October 27, 2006 for arraignment. What a fete!
A young man from India who can’t understand English is operating
or helping to operate the sell of meth on Oregon Trail Cards. Preposterous
at best.
In
a recent “letter to the editor” published in the Medford
Mail Tribune, Dan T. Brown of Medford states, “Store clerk rang
up meth. Let me get this right. An investigator shoots off at the mouth
and you put it on the front page? (Above the fold?) When these accusations
are disposed of will you put that on the front page? No one was arrested
for drugs, so who are they talking about? Thanks Dan Brown. You have
just shared the US~Observer’s sentiments perfectly and accurately
with the public and you can rest assured that neither local paper will
print the truth about this situation on their front page when the drug
accusation is disposed of…