An Oil City couple who were arrested in December following a raid at their West First Street home are now facing several more charges following a further investigation into the incident.
The state Attorney General’s office, in a press release and criminal complaints issued Friday, detailed the additional charges filed Friday against Robert Haney, 49, and Thresea Haney, 47. Related charges were also filed Friday against two Mercer County residents, according to the press release and complaints.
A previous eight-month investigation culminated in the December raid at the 1016 West First St. residence in Oil City occupied by the Haneys.
The investigation began in April 2021 when a confidential informant identified the Haneys as people who dealt crystal meth, the complaint said. The informant had known the Haneys for a few years and been purchasing meth from both of them, according to the complaint.
Between April 2021 and November 2021, the informant made four controlled purchases of meth from the Haneys at the West First Street home, the complaint said.
On June 29, 2021, at about 10 p.m., agents from the Attorney General’s office witnessed a drug purchasing transaction in the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel in Hermitage, the complaint said.
A grey Ford Fusion was later found to be registered to the Haneys and was driven from the parking lot by Clint Donovan, 41, of Mercer, the complaint said.
Donovan, who was followed from the motel by police, drove the Fusion at a high rate of speed and passed other vehicles recklessly, then pulled the car into the parking lot of a business where police told him to stop, the complaint said.
But Donovan then drove away at a high rate of speed before crashing into the front yard of a residence after a brief chase, and he was apprehended and identified, according to the complaint.
Donovan was found to have $1,275 on his person that he said was “from meth,” the complaint said. He also told police he went to the motel to meet a man who owed him money and that he had ingested meth and Roxicodone earlier in the day, the complaint said.
Donovan was found to be impaired, and he was arrested and taken to the Mercer County jail, according to the complaint.
Police then found the man who had purchased the drugs from Donovan at the motel and he admitted to buying the meth for $900, the complaint said. Police found the man to be in possession of 55.23 grams of meth, according to the complaint.
The next day, June 30, 2021, Hermitage police recovered a bag at the water authority property, near where Donovan had pulled off during the chase, and the bag contained 379.78 grams of meth and 5.35 grams of fentanyl as well as 14 oxycodone pills and three morphine pills, the complaint said.
On July 1 and 2 2021, Donovan placed multiple calls to Thompson, directing her to pick up two bags and then describing the second bag that she told him she couldn’t find (which had been recovered by Hermitage police), the complaint said.
They also discussed where Thompson was going to live since Donovan was in jail and they settled on her moving in with the Haneys and continuing to collect money from people who owed Thompson, according to the complaint.
At some point in October, Thompson was arrested and incarcerated and Donovan told the Haneys over the phone from jail that he believed it happened when she was traveling to Erie to meet a meth supplier, the complaint said.
On Dec. 16, police searched the Haney house at 1016 West First where they found 303.94 grams of meth, 1.23 grams of THC, seven hydrocodone pills, eight oxycodone pills and 28 amphetamine pills, along with nine long guns, one revolver, two handguns and an AR-15, the complaint said.
A juvenile male was staying with the Haneys, and police found in his bedroom five bags containing 257.24 grams of meth, a bag of THC and $1,367, including $140 that had been used in a controlled drug buy from Robert Haney two days earlier, the complaint said. The boy was charged in juvenile court, according to the complaint.
During the search, Thresea Haney told police she only knew the juvenile as “Little Man” and he had arrived at their house with a large amount of meth, the complaint said. She noted that in the past she had met “Little Man” to obtain meth in Grove City and/or New Castle, the complaint said.
Robert Haney was charged Friday with eight felony counts of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture of deliver a controlled substance.
Thresea Haney was charged with five felony counts of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance.
Donovan was charged with six felony counts of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture of deliver a controlled substance, a felony count of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and a misdemeanor count of DUI.
Thompson was charged with a felony count of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance.
Additionally, all four suspects were charged with a felony count of criminal use of a communication facility.
This investigation was a joint operation with the Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, Sugarcreek, Oil City and Hermitage police, and the Mercer County Drug Task Force, with assistance from the Venango and Mercer County district attorney’s offices.
