Trending
The seven individuals arrested after a raid of a Minot residence by the Ward County Narcotics Task Force last May have had their preliminary hearing continued to a later date due to the unavailability of some of the attorneys representing the defendants.
James Robb, 50, Kayla Woodfork, 26, Douglas Woodfork, 36, Lawrence Brown, 55, and Dumont Whitt, 50, all appeared in district court in Minot on Thursday afternoon, while co-defendants Dustin Eells and Jacqueline White Eagle were absent. District Court Judge Todd Cresap informed the co-defendants that the intended hearing was to be continued to a later date, but that out of fairness to those who were able to appear with counsel, he would be proceeding with previously scheduled bond reduction hearings.
Robb and Whitt were unable to move forward with their bond hearings without their attorneys present, but Brown and the Woodforks, who are married, were able to proceed. Kayla Woodfork's public defender attorney Eric Baumann made his appeal to the court, saying a drastic change to his client's bond was appropriate claiming that she didn't have direct connection to drug distribution, pointing to her lack of criminal record in the state and established ties in the Minot community.
"Sometimes people involved in criminal activities have houseguests," Baumann said.
Assistant Ward County State's Attorney Tiffany Sorgen pushed back at the decrease saying, "You don't go to a 'fent pad' for tea and crumpets. This is the largest amount of fentanyl I have seen in a while."
Cresap eventually decided to decrease Kayla Woodfork's bond to $15,000 and dropped Douglas Woodfork's to $45,000 cash or corporate surety. Brown's bond was kept the same, with Sorgen citing and enumerating a litany of prior convictions in other states.
"Fentanyl is a plague on our community. We now have dead bodies showing up everywhere because of this. We need to treat this seriously. This isn't a simple drug case," Cresap said.
A new date for the preliminary hearing on this matter has not been set by the court. A pretrial conference is still scheduled for Sept. 13.