Arraignment set for businessman
SANDPOINT — A Sagle businessman implicated in a Bonner County Sheriff’s Office drug sting is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court court.
Daniel Jon Maddux is charged with two counts of delivery of marijuana and/or conspiring with another suspect to aid and abet the illicit transactions.
A grand jury indicted Maddux, 54, on the charges last month and he was picked up on a $100,000 warrant earlier this month as part of “Operation New Hight,” a sweeping investigation that has led to scores of drug arrests throughout the county.
Maddux, co-owner of the Long Bridge Grill, is accused of providing pot to an undercover agent or conspiring with waitress Elizabeth Ann Goldberg to deliver the drugs. The alleged transactions took place on Jan. 4 and Jan. 18.
Goldberg, 43, also of Sagle, is likewise charged.
Further information about the charges against Maddux and Goldberg has not been released and the grand jury testimony which gave rise to the charges remains filed under seal.
A woman sheriff’s officials described as a former waitress of the restaurant and lounge, Karen Leann Medland, was also arrested and charged with delivery of controlled substance. Medland delivered amphetamine to the same undercover agent involved in the alleged transactions involving Maddux and Goldberg, charging papers allege.
Medland, 50, of Coeur d’Alene, provided amphetamine to the undercover agent on Feb. 2.
Arraignments in the cases against Goldberg and Medland are pending, according to court documents.
Prosecutor Louis Marshall, meanwhile, intends to seize the business under the state’s drug criminal forfeiture statute, records at the Bonner County Recorder’s Office show. The business at 471600 U.S. Highway 95 is subject to seizure if the state wins a conviction.
Daniel Maddux’s wife, Ellen, defended her husband and their business when she called The Daily Bee to lash out at its coverage of the case and for relying on information supplied by the sheriff’s office.
“He’s a good man,” she said.