Still no sentence for Long Beach drug-dealer: Merrill saunas while lawyers stall

Published 1:18 pm Tuesday, January 15, 2019

SOUTH BEND — Last June, County Prosecutor Mark McClain got a call from a company that monitors court-ordered tracking devices. Robert “Tony” Merrill, addict, dealer, former Long Beach Go-Karts owner and one-time fugitive Cabo San Lucas resident, appeared to be barrelling down a highway in the California desert in a car he wasn’t supposed to have.

At first, authorities thought he’d fled from the Scientology-affiliated rehab where he was receiving treatment and made a second run for the border. Police pursued him — to the lobby of another Scientology-run rehab.

It was just one of several bizarre recent developments in Merrill’s ongoing case.

Still no sentence

In spring 2017, police raided Merrill’s downtown entertainment complex and found meth, heroin and pills, which he sold from an upstairs office.

In the 20 months since, investigators linked Merrill to a stolen-gun-peddling ring and charged him with 49 felonies, a legitimate businessman bought the Go-Kart business for $1.6 million and gave it an extensive makeover, several of Merrill’s associates pleaded guilty and served sentences, Merrill’s parents helped him flee to Mexico, U.S. Marshals brought him back, the county was awarded much of his $250,000 forfeited bail bond, and two attorneys who were heavily involved in his case became superior court judges.

Merrill entered the Scientology rehab, briefly landed in a San Diego County jail and went back to rehab.

And in all that time, he still has not been sentenced.

Costly vacation

When Merrill’s parents bailed him out the first time, they guaranteed his return to court by pledging $250,000 of their own money. Court records now show that despite the tremendous financial risk, his parents likely helped him head south of the border and then hindered efforts to track him down. Robert and Eldora Merrill apparently made several Western Union money transfers to Cabo San Lucas while he was there. Some of the transfers were made from a grocery store near their attorney’s office. Merrill reportedly called his parents every two weeks — something they did not disclose to the sheriff’s office, or to the U.S. Marshalls who were hunting for their son. That decision cost the Merrills dearly.

Merrill was apprehended in October 2017, about five months after he skipped bail. Under Washington law, bail bond companies can get their money back if the bail-jumper returns to court within a year, provided that they actively assist with efforts to apprehend the bail-jumper.

However, McClain successfully argued that neither the bond company nor Merrill’s parents had helped to apprehend him. In December, a judge ruled that the county could keep part of the $250,000. The bail bond company collected its lost funds from the Merrills.

Scientology rehab

Shortly after his return to Washington, the court set Merrill’s new bail at $800,000. Robert and Eldora Merrill posted bail again. This time though, Merrill was ordered to wear a GPS anklet that would alert authorities if he left his parents’ home in Vancouver.

In April 2018, he pleaded guilty to 10 felony charges, including drug delivery, operating a drug house, trafficking in stolen property, burglary and unlawful firearm possession. However, prosecutors agreed he could enter rehab while awaiting sentencing. His parents chose Fresh Start, a Warner Springs, California outpost of the Church of Scientology’s Narconon drug rehabilitation program, which has repeatedly come under fire for allegedly endangering patients with medically unsound practices and pressuring them to join the controversial religion.

Exercise and saunas

Narconon, not to be confused with Narcotics Anonymous, is based on the philosophies of science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Treatment consists mostly of reading Scientology textbooks and participating in the “New Life Detoxification Program,” which involves vigorous exercise, taking “vitamin bombs” and large doses of niacin, and sitting in a 150- to 180-degree sauna to remove “deep-rooted drug residuals … in the body’s cells and tissues,” according to Scientology publications. Because the church isvehemently opposed to psychiatry, patients do not receive psychiatric medications that conventional medical practitioners might prescribe to help with underlying mental health disorders.

Narconon claims to have a 76 percent recovery rate. In letter that urged the court to allow Merrill to remain at Narconon, a spokesman said Merrill’s sauna sessions would “fully remove all physical cravings from the body.”

“Robert has been very cooperative and motivated towards her recovery,” the apparent form letter continued, with a reference that missed Merrill’s gender. .

Sweating it out

Medical experts say there is no scientific basis for the “treatment.” Some doctors have said the high vitamin doses and extreme heat could be deadly for people who have liver damage caused by substance abuse.

Former patients allege Narconon programs, including Fresh Start, are staffed mainly by people who have recently completed the program. Narconon has been sued dozens of times in federal courts. One 2014 lawsuit against Fresh Start alleged the patient was forced to spend hours each day doing bizarre activities that seemed unrelated to treating his addiction, including shouting at an ashtray.

When Merrill appeared to be “escaping” last summer, it turned out Narconon was transporting him between facilities. No one had notified the court or GPS company. He was briefly arrested, then released back to the program.

Merrill is reportedly still sweating it out in the desert.

Delays

Over McClain’s objections, Merrill’s attorneys have managed to postpone sentencing several times, saying it would not be in his best interest to remove him from Fresh Start.

Visiting Thurston County Judge James Dixon reportedly insisted Merrill be sentenced at a hearing scheduled for last Friday. However, it fell through because Merrill’s original attorney, David Mistachkin, was elected Grays Harbor County Superior Court Judge in November.

A public defender was briefly appointed to represent Merrill, but by last Friday, he had hired a new private attorney. That attorney said he had not had time to study Merrill’s case and asked for a delay and access to court documents. Further complicating matters, Don Richter, the former deputy prosecuting attorney who handled much of Merrill’s case, was recently appointed Pacific County Superior Court Judge.

In the period since his recapture in Mexico, McClain said Merrill has thus far showed up in court for all of the hearings where he was required to be present. He is scheduled for sentencing in early February.