Mother, son face meth charges

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County woman who was released onto probation in a methamphetamine case was back on drug investigators’ radar within two months for selling the addictive stimulant.

Leslie Dorland O’Neil was arrested following a months-long investigation into her post-release activities. She’s charged with possession of meth with intent to distribute and trafficking.

She’s also accused of violating the terms of her probation in the underlying case because of the new charges and for allegedly including her teenage son on drug runs and cheating on drug tests, court records show.

O’Neil’s bail was set at $150,000 in the new case.

O’Neil, 34, was arrested last year for delivery of meth following a Sandpoint Police investigation. She pleaded guilty to a reduced charges of simple possession and was sentenced to two to five years in prison with retained jurisdiction, which qualified her for release onto probation after serving six months.

She was placed on probation for three years in April, but by June numerous reports surfaced that she was back to selling the drug, according to court documents.

Bonner County Sheriff’s drug agents conducted surveillance on O’Neil and tailed her to locations in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, where she would make brief stops in the pre-dawn hours and immediately return to Bonner County, court records allege.

Drug agents followed O’Neil to the Travel America trailer park in Sagle on Tuesday. As a probationer, she was subject to search, although nothing was discovered in her car. However, a purse was discovered in the trailer park in an area where she briefly swerved off the road.

The purse held 55 grams of meth split into three parcels, according to a sheriff’s report. An account ledger and a mobile phone with incriminating text messages was also recovered.

O’Neil’s 17-year-old son, Bradley Dorland, was a passenger in the vehicle and allegedly told investigators he tossed the purse out the window at the direction of his mother.

Dorland is charged with aiding and abetting possession of meth with intent to distribute, unsealed documents in his case indicate.

“Bradley had nothing to do with anything,” O’Neil said during a brief initial court hearing on Wednesday.