LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Friday, the Lake County District Attorney's Office moved to dismiss drug and human trafficking charges against two men in preparation for the US Attorney's Office taking over the drug aspect of the prosecution.
Ryan Alan Balletto, 30, of Lakeport, Calif., and Patrick Steven Pearmain, 25, of Clearlake, were arrested May 1 on marijuana cultivation and weapons charges, as Lake County News has reported.
Later, both men had been charged by District Attorney Don Anderson's office with human trafficking, statutory rape, oral copulation on a person under age 16, sodomy, false imprisonment, and annoying or molesting a child relating to a teenage girl who allegedly had been kept at the grow site. Balletto also was charged with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under age 14 or 15.
But on Friday all of the drug, human trafficking and sex-related charges were dropped without prejudice, said Anderson.
That's because the US Attorney's Office is preparing to come in and take over the drug prosecution, Anderson explained.
Anderson said that the US Attorney's Office already has gotten federal indictments secured for both men.
“It originally was a federal investigation that started the whole thing,” Anderson said of the case.
At Balletto’s 681-acre property near Clearlake Oaks, authorities found nearly 1,500 marijuana plants and a large and sophisticated cache of military grade sniper and assault rifles, automatic assault rifles and pistols, and ammunition, high capacity magazines, military grade body armor and military grade scopes.
Lake County officials stepped in after they became aware that the men allegedly had been holding a 15-year-old runaway girl from Los Angeles at the property, Anderson said.
Case records indicate that Los Angeles County officials contacted local authorities about the missing girl, who they believed had been brought to Northern California by Balletto for use in a child pornography operation.
It's alleged that the girl – who is estimated to have been at the property for about a month before the arrests occurred – was at times held in a large, specially constructed box as punishment, according to Anderson.
Anderson said he and one of his deputies, Ed Borg, who was handling the cases against Balletto and Pearmain, met with federal prosecutors about how to move forward.
“We agreed that they'll do the guns and the marijuana,” said Anderson.
He said the federal punishment for the charges the men are facing is much more severe than the penalties they would receive in local court, with the possibility that the men could serve life in prison rather than just a few years in state prison or the local jail.
In the meantime, Anderson said his staff will continue its investigation into the sex crimes and human trafficking aspect of the case, with a view to possibly refiling at some point in the future.
“There's still a lot more work that needs to be done,” he said.
Anderson said that, regardless of what the US Attorney's Office does, his office can file charges again if it's warranted.
He said federal officials are expected to come and transfer Balletto and Pearmain to federal custody in the Bay Area on Monday.
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