Prosecutors rush to file drug charge

Local authorities are making good on their promise to come down hard on low-level, Central District drug dealers who've either spurned or gone back on a deal that would've seen them avoid prosecution if they agreed to stop selling dope.

King County prosecutors rush-filed a felony drug charge against Gerald Cowles on Tuesday, accusing the 39-year-old of twice selling $40 worth of crack cocaine to a Seattle police informant on the same night in May. If convicted, Cowles faces between 12 and 20 months in prison, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

Cowles, who was one of 16 drug dealers who attended a "community call-in" with police, prosecutors and neighborhood service providers on Thursday night, was arrested the following evening after he was found with a crack pipe in the 2200 block of East Cherry Street, Donohoe said.

Two other drug dealers were invited to the gathering at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center last week but didn't attend: One failed to show up and the other was arrested on an unrelated charge before the meeting.

Those who were there, including Cowles, were told felony drug cases wouldn't be filed against them if they stopped selling drugs and accepted the job training, educational opportunities, housing assistance and chemical-dependency treatment being offered them.

Today, prosecutors expect to file felony drug charges against the two no-shows, who like Cowles, are accused of selling narcotics to informants or undercover detectives during a yearlong operation along the 23rd Avenue corridor, Donohoe said.

According to jail records, Cowles was booked into the King County Jail just after midnight Saturday on an outstanding theft warrant and investigation of attempted Violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (VUCSA), the state's drug law. The charges are in addition to the felony drug charges filed by King County prosecutors.

On Monday, Cowles pleaded guilty in Seattle Municipal Court to the attempted VUCSA charge, which was filed by Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr's office. He received a four-month deferred sentence, provided he commits no new crimes, pays a $43 fee and stays out of the Central District drug area.

Should Cowles post bail and be released from jail, the Stay Out of Drug Area order means he can go to and from his Central District home but otherwise, he will be arrested on sight if he's found lingering anywhere in the neighborhood.

"We want to keep Mr. Cowles out of the East Precinct," Carr said Tuesday. "He can't be in this market; he can't be hanging out on the streets."

Since King County prosecutors stopped filing drug-paraphernalia cases in 2005, the City Attorney's office has taken over prosecuting "crack pipe cases" in which people are found "in possession of a trace amount of crack cocaine in a crack pipe," Carr said.

Ordering drug users to stay out of known drug areas has proved very successful, he said.

Since 2006, 80 percent of people handed the Stay Out of Drug Area orders haven't violated them and 80 percent of offenders haven't reoffended, Carr said.

"What we're trying to do is drive the buyers away from the market," he said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com