THE COPS SAY they started hearing from some neighbors at the
Pearl District’s Irving Street Lofts several months ago, after an
unusually large number of visitors started showing up to unit 408.
“We’re talking sometimes 70-80 visitors in a 24-hour period,” says
Officer Mark Friedman, whose investigative work, along with the sharp
eyes of some anonymous residents of the building, led to the arrest of
the owner of a high-end condo on April Fool’s Day, on allegations of
meth distribution.
The numerous visitors were allegedly showing up with car stereo
speakers, flat-panel TVs, construction equipment, and other unusual
goods, and walking away empty-handed. Following the residents’ tip-off,
cops waited outside the building and stopped two people who visited the
unit with similar items—both had a significant number of
meth-related arrests.
Officer Friedman was able to secure a community warrant to search
the unit, based on observations from residents and the corroborative
records of the visitors he had stopped. Friedman says officers
recovered some meth from the unit, along with packaging materials, drug
scales, drug records, and “a bevy of presumed stolen property,”
including computers, plumbing fixtures, and even a steel catering
microwave.
Russell Dealy, 44, the sole owner of the unit, was arrested for
alleged identity theft, theft, and delivery and possession of meth, and
taken to the Multnomah County Detention Center. Dealy told officers he
had inherited money to buy the condo, but that he had started hanging
out with old friends, according to Friedman.
“A building like that is the perfect cover for that type of
operation,” says Friedman. “It’s a building lived in by busy
professionals, so that type of behavior wouldn’t stick out right
away.”
The Irving Street Lofts were built as a warehouse in 1924 for the
Blumauer-Frank Drug Company. The building was converted to rentals and
artists’ lofts in the late 1980s and into condos in 1995. Maxine
Cracraft, chair of the Irving Street Lofts Homeowners Association,
declined comment. Meanwhile, Dealy was scheduled for arraignment this
week.