Cd'A drug bust starts with a bang

COEUR d’ALENE — Terry Pardue was in his upstairs bedroom after midnight watching television when the police came knocking.

Only, they didn’t knock.

Instead, around 1 a.m. Thursday, an armored police vehicle bumped across the Third Street sidewalk that skirts the Pardue home — on the 700 block about a half-mile north of downtown Coeur d’Alene — and shined its lights into the house.

“The light was so bright I couldn’t see,” said Pardue, who is 77 and rides a tricycle around his Midtown neighborhood when he’s not in the home that he shares with his son and grandson.

The police SWAT unit had firearms raised; four officers with rifles stood in the front yard, neighbors said.

They used a bullhorn to order the Pardues outside and popped several flashbangs, small explosives that use noise and bright lights to distract suspects.

“They were putting the dog on,” Pardue said. “That’s for sure.”

A neighbor who didn’t want to be quoted said the fireworks started at 1:06 Thursday morning. The neighbor watched the activity from the window of his darkened living room.

It took a while for anyone in the Pardues’ house, a dilapidated two-story in various stages of construction, to respond to police, the neighbor said.

Flashbangs popped and a sliding glass door in the back of the house was broken, according to Pardue.

“They swarmed in here like flies,” he said.

Coeur d’Alene Police Capt. Dave Hagar said the house is part of a drug investigation and details regarding Thursday morning’s activity won’t be disclosed until the investigation is completed.

The investigation started as a response to concerns by neighbors who indicated what appeared to be drug activity at the house, police said.

Three people, including Terry Pardue, were charged with misdemeanors. Pardue was charged with frequenting a place where drugs are used, manufactured, cultivated, held, delivered or given.

It is the 77-year-old’s first offense.

His son, Jeremy Pardue Sr., a roofer, and his grandson, Jeremy Jr., were also charged with the misdemeanor.

Pardue said he won’t sign the paperwork summoning him to court to face the misdemeanor.

“I have never done drugs, I don’t want my name to be associated with it,” he said. “I pay $190 for that room, and I shouldn’t be harassed by anybody.”

He said police were after his grandson, who he said was kicked out of the residence Friday morning by his dad.

Jeremy Jr., 23, has three misdemeanor drug-related convictions on his record, spanning the past two years.

According to the warrant police used to search the 749 N. Third St. residence and an outbuilding, officers had probable cause to believe controlled substances, including heroin, would be found on the premises.

The warrant precludes officers from knocking on the door of the house, making it a “no-knock warrant,” in legal parlance.

The warrant requires police to make a written inventory of items seized in the raid.

Pardue said officers were mostly cordial and well-mannered in their search of the residence, and in their detaining of the Pardues. He was required to wait inside a patrol vehicle for four hours, he said, while the search was conducted.

He had one gripe in particular.

“They took my pocket knife and didn’t give it back,” he said.

He plans to bill the city for the broken sliding glass door and request the return of the knife, he said.

Because the case is under investigation, Hagar said additional charges may still be filed.

Hagar said police seized drugs and paraphernalia during the search.

“We did seize evidence while we were there,” he said, “and identified people key to our investigation.”