A Virginia man who friends said started dealing cocaine to pay the bills after he lost his construction job in November 2008 is now facing at least 10 years in prison.
Bernard A. Clemen was a foreman for Bullseye Construction in Nokesville for eight years, managing work crews that ran backhoes, bobcats and dump trucks, his former boss, Larry Ross wrote in a letter on Clemen’s behalf to U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee who serves in Alexandria’s federal court.
“With the economy as it is, I had no choice but to cut back on almost the entire work crew,” Ross wrote. “But when it picks up, there will most definitely be a position for Andy.”
That’s assuming he won’t be in prison. In September, the 35-year-old was arrested by federal authorities with 2.2 pounds of cocaine and a shotgun in his truck. Clemen reportedly told authorities he had the shotgun because he had gone hunting before meeting with a police informant who gave him the government-provided cocaine, court documents said. Clemen had planned to take the cocaine to his Nokesville home, break off about seven ounces and give the remainder back to the informant later that day.
Since November 2008, Clemen had been buying four to five ounces of cocaine a week, valued at about $6,000, he admitted. He used some of the drug and sold the rest to what his attorney described in court documents as a “small group of friends.”
When he was arrested, Clemen reportedly told law enforcement officials he was “just trying to make a dollar,” authorities said.
Before his arrest, Clemen’s illegal activity was limited to hunting infractions, his attorney wrote. Court records show that Clemen was fined $1,500 in 2001 for using bait to illegally catch migratory birds.
On the day of his arrest, authorities searched Clemen’s home and found several hunting related weapons and a .40 caliber handgun under his mattress, court documents said. In his plea agreement, Clemen admitted to using the handgun as protection from other drug dealers. By admitting that Clemen, potentially doubled the five-year minimum sentence he faced for the drug trafficking charges.
Clemen is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
