From The Citizen Tribune/Robert Moore
The 1982 felony-murder conviction and 1997 marijuana-trafficking conviction of Claiborne County drug dealer Frank “Boss” Lake occurred so long ago that those criminal-history blemishes won’t add time to his federal prison term when he’s sentenced in Kentucky, according to court documents.
Lake, a 68-year-old man who lived on Brantley Road in Harrogate, pleaded guilty in federal court in London to selling oxycodone, hydrocodone, Xanax and Suboxone to a long-time friend who was working as an informant, according to court documents.
Rachel D. Yavelak, Lake’s attorney, said earlier that she anticipated federal drug-trafficking charges in Tennessee. No public document indicates Lake has been indicted for selling in Tennessee.
As it stands, Lake faces between one year and 18 months in the Kentucky case, according to the defense attorney.
“(Lake) has no convictions other than traffic citations since the 1997 case,” Yavelak wrote in the defense sentencing memorandum. “He has zero criminal-history points, and while the sale of any number of pills is to be taken seriously, the quantity in this case is significantly less than usually seen in these types of cases.”
The defense attorney, who reports Lake has serious health problems, is advocating a 10- to 12-month sentence.
One of the unresolved sentencing-related issues involves the 100-plus firearms confiscated at Lake’s home, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason D. Parman, who says Yavelak represented it was “clearly improbable” the guns were related to the offenses.
Parman maintains that the firearms, which were found in proximity to $115,000 in cash, “constitute a sufficient connection with the drug offense to warrant the enhancement.”