A 46-year-old Little Rock man who once ran for a seat on the city Board of Directors accepted a 15-year prison sentence Wednesday for drug trafficking at his home in the Heights rather than stand trial.
Geoffrey Paul Yamauchi pleaded guilty to simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, possession of psilocyn [or psilocin] (a hallucinogenic derived from mushrooms), marijuana possession with intent to deliver, maintaining a drug premises and possession of drug paraphernalia.
In exchange for his guilty plea, deputy prosecutor Ben Barham recommended the 15-year sentence, reduced the severity of the psilocyn [or psilocin] charge and dropped two misdemeanor charges. His prison time will be followed by a five-year suspended sentence.
The arrangement was negotiated by Yamauchi's attorneys, Jack Lassiter and Lauren Collins.
Yamauchi, a first-time offender, had been scheduled for a jury trial on Wednesday before Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. Yamauchi had challenged the legality of the raid that resulted in his arrest, but lost at a hearing earlier this month.
Yamauchi unsuccessfully challenged Kathy Webb, a former state representative, for the Ward 3 seat on the city board in the November 2014 election. He received only 18 percent of the vote to 82 percent for Webb.
In his campaign, Yamauchi said public safety would be a top priority, stating that he wanted to use public forums to strengthen ties between police and residents in high-crime neighborhoods.
He said he wanted to increase neighborhood policing efforts, but said public safety should extend beyond police and fire to making sure streets are well maintained and improper waste management is not allowed to foment the growth of pests.
Almost exactly a year later, police raided his R Street home after receiving an anonymous handwritten letter accusing Yamauchi of growing, selling and smoking "high quality weed" in his home for years, court files show. The tipster also stated that Yamauchi owned several firearms.
The letter writer also stated that Yamauchi would "rat out" a similar operation elsewhere in the county "because he is like that."
The writer also promised to tip police off about two "big meth lab operations" if Yamauchi's arrest was reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Police Beat column by the end of 2015. His arrest was reported in the paper's Nov. 12, 2015, issue.
It's not known whether the writer ever made good on the promise of more information. Lt. Steve McClanahan did not return an email Wednesday asking whether that tipsterhad ever provided police with more information.
Court filings show that a day after receiving the letter, detectives went to Yamauchi's home, a 1,260-square-foot residence he bought in 1996 for $105,000, where they took a bag of trash from the curb and found a sapling marijuana plant with dirt still on the roots.
That evening, police raided the house in a "dynamic entry" under the authority of a search warrant signed by District Judge Alice Lightle, arresting Yamauchi in his garage behind the residence.
Police reported seizing 10.4 pounds of marijuana, a substantial portion of it contained in 28 bags that were found in a closet in the garage. Four bags of mushrooms that together weighed about a pound were also discovered in the garage.
Police also reported finding suspected marijuana in a freezer, the living room, the laundry room and a dining room armoire cabinet, court files show. Police also seized four shotguns, five rifles, and three pistols, all from a bedroom closet.
The report states that police took an unspecified amount of cash from a safe in Yamauchi's laundry room.
Prosecutors have since filed a civil suit to force the defendant to forfeit $23,472 that police confiscated from the home. They allege the cash is the proceeds of drug dealing. That litigation, which is still pending, is separate from the criminal prosecution.
Yamauchi has submitted a sworn statement to the court stating that he earned most of that money by working for a medical equipment sales company. Some of the money is in the form of collectible coins he has acquired as a hobby, Yamauchi states in the pleading. Some of those coins were gifts from his father, he states.
Yamauchi's father is pediatrician Dr. Terry Yamauchi, a gubernatorial appointee to the Arkansas Board of Health for the past 10 years, and a former director of the state Department of Human Services.
Metro on 01/26/2017