Habeger pleads on drug charges

A Havre man accused of possessing drugs involved in an incident with another man found “freaking out” at a local parking lot last winter has pleaded guilty to some charges.

Cory J. Habeger, born in 1987, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement Tuesday in state District Court in Havre to a felony charge of possession of methamphetamine and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

District Judge Dan Boucher ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing for Dec. 1. The plea agreement recommends a five-year suspended sentence on the felony and a six-month suspended sentence on the misdemeanor. A felony charge of possession of the prescription painkiller hydrocodone will be dismissed.

Habeger’s codefendant, Wesley J. Hansen, already was sentenced under a plea agreement. Hansen, born in 1987, pleaded guilty to felony charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of property subject to forfeiture, $254.75 in U.S. currency, with a felony count of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to sell and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia dismissed under the agreement. In June, Boucher imposed two three-year deferred imposition of sentences on Hansen to run at the same time for the felonies.

The investigation that led to the charges started when a Havre police officer noticed two men standing outside of a 2nd Avenue residence shortly before 4 the morning of Jan. 8. The officer thought the men were acting strangely considering the temperature. The low that morning hit 11 degrees.

The officer then responded to a call reporting a man acting strangely in the parking lot of a business on the 700 Block of 1st Street.

The officer said the man, Alex Eakins, said he had purchased drugs at the house the officer had noted earlier and “done a line” and “started freaking out.” The officer said Eakins was hallucinating, asking the officer to remove a creature from his back when nothing was there. The officer called the Havre Fire Department emergency medical technicians to check his condition.

Eakins pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana Jan. 10 in Havre City Court,

When officers responded to the residence where Eakins said he purchased the drugs, they observed Habeger and Hansen through the window, the document says, and when they knocked on the door, the two began apparently trying to hide things before opening the door.

Habeger told the officer he had drugs on him and pulled a vial containing a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine from his pocket. Officers found numerous items identified as drug paraphernalia in the residence as well as a small amount of methamphetamine and three prescription painkiller hydrocodone pills in a prescription bottle for an anti-anxiety medicine.

The Hill County Attorney’s Office requested permission to charge Habeger with possession of property subject to forfeiture, but Boucher denied permission to file that charge, saying probable cause linking the firearms found to illegal actions had not been established.