Skip to main contentWhen police busted Rich Hubbard last year on suspicion of dealing ecstasy, opium, 2CB, BZP, mushrooms and weed, he was a 20-year-old sophomore at Reed College living a block from campus.
Now Hubbard is facing trial after authorities say he ditched court and spent months living on campus while he was wanted by police. But he won't be starting classes this week with his 1,400 fellow Reedies. Kevin Myers, a spokesman for the school, confirms Hubbard is no longer enrolled.
The absence of a dealer isn't the only change this year at the elite college in Southeast Portland. Students also returned to campus under a new drug enforcement plan that lays out when the school may call the police on students, as they did last fall with Hubbard.
Reed's president, Colin Diver, approved the new policy May 6—13 months after freshman Alejandro Lluch died in his dorm room of a heroin overdose. His death brought new attention to Reed's reputation for being famously tolerant of illegal drugs (see "Higher Ed," WW, May 14, 2008).
The new policy says the school "may" call police if campus authorities catch students selling or giving away "hard drugs," meaning cocaine, heroin and meth. It also says the school "will ordinarily" call the cops if students are caught with "distribution quantities" of those drugs.
For alcohol and marijuana, Reed will continue its old policy of relying on the school's own discipline.But under the new policy, campus security will now confiscate drugs when they're found—something students last year told WW was rarely done.
Gretchen Sperling of the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association welcomes the new policy, but she's not convinced Reed is serious about addressing neighbors' long-held concerns about drug use on campus.
"Reed can speak very well and it can look good on paper, but the execution falls very short," Sperling says. "That's been true throughout our tenure here in the neighborhood." Reed's new policy wasn't in place last year when Hubbard was arrested. But Hubbard's bust shows how things could look on campus this year. That's because authorities say it was Reed staff who turned Hubbard in.
Acting on a tip from the Reed mailroom, a Portland police sergeant and a U.S. postal inspector arrested Hubbard on campus Nov. 19 for allegedly shipping nine ecstasy pills. He was cited and released, agreeing to show up in court the following month.
Hubbard, who hails from North Carolina, did not respond to a request for comment but has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney, prominent defense lawyer Stephen Houze, also declined to comment.
Just five days after his first arrest, in an apparently unrelated investigation also based on information from Reed staff, two Portland cops staked out Hubbard's apartment at 2818 SE Colt Drive. They watched Hubbard and a friend who wasn't a Reed student, Daniel Chafetz, come and go throughout the day.
According to court records, the officers approached them and gained consent to search a box Hubbard was carrying. Inside they found "a large amount of marijuana packaged into smaller amounts for sale and a scale," an affidavit says. Hubbard then gave the officers permission to search his apartment, the affidavit says, where they found 106 grams of hash, more than 13 grams of ecstasy, five grams of 'shrooms, eight grams of opium, 25 pill capsules and a gallon-sized Hefty bag with 62 grams of pot.
According to court documents, Chafetz was visiting for two days from Kensington, Md., and bought $6,000 worth of drugs from Hubbard to sell for $18,000 back home. Chafetz, 20, pleaded guilty July 1 to delivery of marijuana and was sentenced to 10 days in jail and three years of probation.
Hubbard proved more elusive. He failed to appear for a Dec. 19 arraignment and was indicted Feb. 18, with a judge issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Tipped off by a confidential source, cops arrested Hubbard on May 27 at a house near campus, according to police records. He told authorities he'd been living with his girlfriend in the Reed College Apartments on campus.
Hubbard, who is now 21, spent 42 days in jail before posting bail July 7. The day he was released, he updated his Facebook status to read: "10 toes to the MF pavement...for now."
Hubbard pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of possessing, manufacturing and delivering drugs. If convicted, he faces up to 18 months in prison, but judges often give probation in such cases. His trial is set for Nov. 14.
As for spending time behind bars, Hubbard may be preparing himself. His Aug. 1 Facebook update reads: "if i have to live on this earth without sun i'll be da illest blind bastard...."
In Rich Hubbard's court file, a county official writes that Hubbard supplied the drugs that killed a Reed student. Prosecutors say the statement is the result of miscommunication and that police are still investigating who supplied drugs to Alejandro Lluch.
WWeek 2015