CANYON CITY – Dayville resident Robert Donald Mayhugh entered “not guilty” pleas in front of Grant County Circuit Court Judge William Cramer Jr. on Thursday, July 25, in connection with drug-related charges from an incident which occurred on Friday, Dec. 28, 2001.

On that date, Oregon State Police, in coordination with Grant County Sheriff’s deputies and the John Day Police Department, conducted a multi-agency drug investigation which resulted in the arrests of Mayhugh and Mt. Vernon resident Robert Dean Craig.

The incident began around 2:20 p.m. on Dec. 28 when Craig was stopped by OSP troopers and officers from the John Day police on Highway 395 near milepost 1.5.

At that time, he was discovered to be in possession of over a quarter-pound of marijuana and was taken into custody, police reported.

After the arrest, officers obtained a search warrant for Craig’s residence in Mt. Vernon where an additional pound-and-a-half of marijuana was seized along with a small amount of methamphetamine, scales and drug-packaging material, according to police records.

Following this search, officers then went to Mayhugh’s residence in Dayville where OSP Sgt. Gordon Larson obtained a telephonic search warrant for the residence and an adjacent outbuilding on the property, police reported.

Mayhugh was not at home at the time the search warrant was executed, and officers seized a hand gun, a gun safe and a small amount of marijuana, police reported.

The safe recovered in the search was transported to the Grant County Sheriff’s Department and it was opened by investigating officers on Dec. 31.

At that time 27 pounds of marijuana were recovered along with six firearms, including a Mac-10 sub-machine gun, three semi-automatic handguns, a 12 gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber rifle and other assorted items, according to police.

An “attempt to locate” was issued for Mayhugh, and he was later arrested and charged with two counts of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, two counts of delivery of marijuana for payment and two counts of possession of a controlled substance in connection with the incident. He was lodged in the Grant County Jail.

At Thursday’s hearing, Cramer informed Mayhugh that a new charge of tampering with a witness had also been filed against him, and the judge set Sept. 11 as the date for a plea hearing on this charge.

He was released on a $15,000 bond on the witness-tampering charge, in addition to the $25,000 he previously had posted on the drug charges.

Mayhugh’s trial date on the drug offenses was set for Nov. 4.