Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
Thomas Dean Allen, 55, of Forks, Washington was sentenced on Thursday to sixty days jail after being found guilty of Possession of a Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine) and Bail Jumping following a two-day jury trial.
Testimony established that on September 18, 2018, Mr. Allen was contacted in front of his residence and arrested on an outstanding warrant. Deputy David Fletcher of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office searched Mr. Allen incident to arrest and discovered a bag of white crystalline substance in his front right pocket. The substance in the baggie was suspected to contain methamphetamine and subsequent testing confirmed that suspicion.
After Mr. Allen was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, he was ordered to appear in Superior Court on May 23, 2019, but he failed to appear on that date. A warrant was issued for Mr. Allen and he remained at large until he was arrested in early August. Due to Mr. Allen being at warrant without good cause for in excess of three months, his initial charges were amended by the State to include a count of Bail Jumping. At trial, the State presented the testimony of a clerk of the court, along with court recordings, that established that Mr. Allen had knowledge of his court date and failed to appear.
Based on the defendant’s statements, the facts offered at trial, and the nature of the charge, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Lauren Erickson made a determination that Mr. Allen has a chemical dependency that contributed to the offense. Consequently, the court imposed twelve months of Department of Corrections supervision and required Mr. Allen to undergo an evaluation for, and fully comply with, treatment for substance use disorder. Due to Mr. Allen’s limited criminal history, the court permitted half of Mr. Allen’s sixty-day sentence to be converted to two hundred and forty hours of community service. The court also imposed a victim penalty assessment fee of $500, a criminal filing fee of $200, and a DNA collection fee of $100.
