BUFFALO – In a case related to Operation Meltdown I and II, two city residents have been ordered held after allegedly threatening witnesses in the city methamphetamine case. They were indicted by a federal grand jury last week.
A detention hearing was held Tuesday for Bobby Hunt, Jr., 26, and Amy Dean, 29, both of Jamestown. Although not charged in the drug case, Hunt and Dean were charged with conspiracy to retaliate against witnesses, witness retaliation, and taking action harmful to a witness, after they threatened someone they believed to be a cooperating with the government in its case against the Jamestown methamphetamine conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder ordered the defendants detained.
In seeking to have Hunt and Dean detained, the Government presented a series of threatening social media posts and voicemail messages, and information regarding the assault of a woman the defendants believed to be cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation. As a result of that assault, the woman suffered a miscarriage.
The two face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The charges against Hunt and Dean are the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Loeffert, the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt, New York Field Division, and the Jamestown Police Department, under the direction of Chief Harry Snellings.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patricia Astorga and Emmanuel Ulubiyo, who are handling the case, stated that according to the indictment, on or about October 25, the defendants threatened to and caused bodily injury to an individual in retaliation for information relating to the commission of a federal offense given to a law enforcement officer.
