Owner of Washington 'Clean and Sober' Housing Charged With Federal Drug Crimes

by frank

The owner of a chain of nonprofit drug counseling and housing centers in Washington state was charged Thursday with selling meth and heroin from his business office, authorities said.
Timothy Arthur Rehberg, 50, of Everett, was ordered held pending a detention hearing next week in U.S. District Court in Seattle on a single felony count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin.
A preliminary hearing was set for Feb. 25.
No one answered a call to a phone number for the headquarters of Rehberg's company, I.C. Clean People Recovery Housing Inc., and the company's website was unavailable Thursday, with a notation that its domain was inactive.

Timothy Arthur Rehberg in court. myeverettnews.com

According to licensing records on file with the Washington secretary of state's office, I.C. Clean People's mission was "to help anyone quit drugs/alcohol and provide a safe, clean and sober home for them." The company's license to operate residential drug recovery centers is listed as inactive.
Rehberg was already on house arrest and was wearing a court-ordered ankle monitoring bracelet when he was arrested Tuesday by Seattle police and federal agents after a three-month undercover operation, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. Court records show that he is under an active protection order filed by an unidentified person described as his domestic partner.
According to the complaint, Seattle police enlisted the help of a confidential source to buy meth, heroin and marijuana from Rehberg during four separate meetings from Jan. 6 to Feb. 4.
Authorities said they found about a pound of crystal meth, a quarter-pound of heroin, small quantities of marijuana, oxycodone and methadone and a .38 caliber revolver in the company's main offices in Everett. According to court documents, Rehberg is prohibited from possessing firearms because of previous felony convictions.
In addition to the domestic violence order, court records show that Rehberg was convicted of manufacturing marijuana, a felony, in 1993 and has at least eight previous convictions for assault, forgery and weapons violations. No one in the secretary of state's office was available after office hours to comment on why Rehberg was granted a state license with his criminal record.
My Everett News, a local news site, reported that the arrest represents the second time that meth has been linked to a "clean and sober" house in Everett in a little more than two months. The director of an unrelated nonprofit facility is scheduled to be sentenced March 8 for having raped and killed a resident on Dec. 2 after having used meth, it reported.