The conviction last week in Clarion County court of drug dealers Spencer Rudolph and Aaron Johnson was the culmination of a two-year investigation that included four municipal police departments, four district attorneys, state police and one very determined Clarion County detective, Bill Peck.
“This investigation went from zero to four levels. You had Spencer Rudolph, Joseph Hoffman, William Fourness and Aaron Johnson,” said Peck, who is also the Clarion Borough police chief.
Rudolph and Johnson were convicted of drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the overdose death in November 2018 of Clarion resident William Stout. Hoffman and Fourness were also charged in the case, and their cases are moving through the court system.
“We had no idea at that time what the cause of death was,” said Peck. “It was almost two months before the toxicology report came back. In that two-month period we had suspicions. We talked to his girlfriend and she gave us her information.”
“We knew there were people who may have been involved but I could not go to them until I knew what I was talking about,” Peck added.
That changed when the toxicology report came back.
“The day that I got the tox back I spoke with the detectives and we were determined to figure this out,” said Peck. “I knew there had to be something on Mr. Stout’s phone. Initially nothing stood out. We had a tip from the probation office about Rudolph that he and his girlfriend were selling heroin in Shippenville Borough. Probation gave us the names and the phone number.”
“We took another look at Stout’s phone and the name Spencer popped up. I took the number from Mr. Stout’s phone and typed it into Facebook Messenger and it came up Spencer Rudolph,” said Peck.
“I did a little digging and I found Rudolph worked with Mr. Stout. We developed an informant and made a controlled purchase from Mr. Rudolph’s house,” he said.
“We did surveillance and had enough to obtain a search warrant for Rudolph’s house. There we obtained evidence of criminal drug activity and we brought him in for questioning,” said Peck.
“When I first started talking with him he thought it was just about what we found in his house,” said Peck. “But when I brought up Mr. Stout he was totally caught off guard. He had no idea that was coming. His mannerisms and demeanor changed. You could tell he was fishing for answers.
“He agreed to cooperate and told me the structure of the organization,” said Peck. “He told me the drugs he gave Mr. Stout that morning came from Joseph Hoffman. He told me he bought those drugs at the Brockway Sheetz.
“We learned Mr. Hoffman was incarcerated in Elk County. After Hoffman went to jail, William Fourness reached out to Rudolph and he started dealing with Fourness directly,” said Peck.
“The next step was to take Rudolph’s phone and start communicating with Fourness. I acted like I was Rudolph and drew Fourness down here. We arranged a buy for five bricks of heroin for $1,400. Fourness showed up at the Country Fair in Shippenville and instead of meeting Rudolph he met the Clarion Borough police.”
Peck built the case step by step because he was able to “flip” the lower level dealers up to Fourness, who then agreed to cooperate. That led to the investigation of Johnson in Monroeville.
Hoffman was interviewed at the Elk County jail where he told Peck he had been to Monroeville where he bought drugs from a man known as “Smooth” who was later identified as Johnson.
“When I called the Monroeville PD they put me in contact with their detectives. I explained the nature of the investigation and where it was leading,” said Peck. “They jumped right on board. They pulled the trash and did some surveillance. When I had that I made the decision that we had to get down there.”
“I knew we needed to get into the house Johnson was using on Noel Drive in Monroeville. We did the surveillance and pulled a car over and got enough for a search warrant,” he said. The car that was pulled over was observed by the Monroeville PD leaving the Noel Drive house. The driver was in the possession of drugs.”
A search warrant was served on the Noel Drive house, and a money-counting machine was recovered along with other drug paraphernalia.
“I think the key in the Johnson case was getting into his house,” said Peck. “If we didn’t have the house evidence it would have been a lot tougher.”
“There were two key points in the Rudolph case – the link between the victim’s phone and the tip and the interview,” Peck said.
“Before we went to Monroeville we had to reach out to district attorneys in Allegheny, Jefferson and Elk counties and lay out our case to them because they had crimes in their county they could prosecute,” Peck said. “They all agreed to look at the big picture. We wanted to prosecute here using the death of Mr. Stout as a catalyst for that. They gave up their cases. That took some time and that was part of the delay.
Peck knew he had a strong case going into the trial but was still concerned.
“The problem is how do you project the information to 12 people so they understand the case the way law enforcement saw it,” he said. “That is what (Clarion County district attorney) Mr. (Drew) Welsh did.”
“He took a tremendous amount of time on this case and I don’t think he could have presented the case any better. He is a strong advocate for the people of Clarion County,” Peck said.
“What is really important is the cooperation I got from the Clarion Borough officials and council. Without their cooperation we would have never made the case. They obviously had trust in this department to make the right decisions,” Peck said.
Rudolph and Johnson are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 26.