Sherriff’s deputies arrest 2 while executing search

Published 1:27 am Tuesday, January 23, 2007

HERMISTON – Deputies from the Umatilla and Morrow County sheriff’s offices served a search warrant and arrested two people Saturday morning, one who is accused of possessing dynamite and the other, who is suspected of illegal drug possession.

Matthew Henry Bosquet, 38, was arrested on accusations of unlawful possessing a stick of dynamite. Renee Sumey, 34, was arrested on a probable cause charge of possession of a controlled substance. She was also arrested on two failure to appear warrants.

Deputies searched the property and a motor home at 76879 Homestead Road, Hermiston.

The purpose for the arrest was to search for evidence related to copper thefts in the region and for controlled substance offenses.

” In many of these incidents, officers find a nexus between copper thefts and controlled substance use,” Umatilla County Undersheriff Terry Rowan said.

Rowan said deputies found evidence of a burned span of cable wire.

The wiring generally has an outer black insulation and a thin tin layer. Within that tin layer, there are many smaller copper wires, each insulated in plastic, Rowan said. To retrieve the inner copper wiring, the outer black insulation must be melted off, exposing the strips of insulted copper.

“The evidence we found was that inner tin wrapping,” Rowan said.

Also during the search, a “suspicious device” was found and the dozen deputies at the scene, along with anyone else present, evacuated from the property while the Oregon State Police Bomb Unit performed an investigation.

The bomb unit determined the device to be a stick of dynamite with a blasting cap, allegedly belonging to Bosquet.

“The explosive device was in a manner in which there was a high potential for explosion,” Rowan said. “A device like this can go off with just static electricity.”