Towamencin man waives hearing on drug, weapons charges

Duane Watson, 43, charged with dealing Oxycodone, threatening neighbors with dynamite

LANSDALE >> Family members sobbed and hugged 43-year-old Duane Eric Watson on Monday afternoon, as the Towamencin man remains in prison after waiving a preliminary hearing on a long list of drug and weapons charges.

“I love you. You know I’m praying every day for you,” said one family member, hugging Watson as he wore a red prison jumpsuit and sat in the courtroom of District Judge Ed Levine of Lansdale.

Watson, his Attorney Thomas C. Egan III and Assistant District Attorney Samantha Thompson all declined to comment after the waived hearing, as did Towamencin Detective Pat Horne and several family members.

Levine said the two parties agreed to waive the preliminary hearing and to a reduction in bail to $99,000, from the $500,000 initially ordered by Levine at Watson’s arraignment in September.

According to the police affidavit against him, Watson — known to police as Boogieman — became the subject of a drug distribution investigation in January 2018 after several reports of large amounts of foot and vehicle traffic at and around his home on the 500 block of Candlemaker Way.

Investigation revealed a prior arrest on Watson’s record in El Paso, Texas, in 1999 from a felony drug law violation, an arrest warrant had been issued in 2009 after Watson’s suspected involvement in a stabbing in Whitpain Township, and a series of contacts with police in 2011 and 2013 in which Watson was allegedly threatening a North Wales resident and suspected of selling Oxycodone in Lansdale, police said.

Surveillance on the home on Candlemaker Way in Towamencin in May 2018 led to an arrest of a person inside a vehicle that had just left the home and possessed 15 milligrams of Oxycodone, according to police. The subject told police they had just bought it from Watson, aka Boogieman, at the home. A Facebook post in May on an account run by Watson asked for a driver to drive one his vehicles to South Carolina, according to police, and a post in June on the same account showed map of I-95 with the caption “I grab Bags all the way Down 95” [sic]; 95 is a known route for drug trafficking and those doing so tend to have multiple cars or drivers, according to police.

In June, a suspected associate of Watson was arrested with more than an ounce of marijuana in his car, and police had seen that subject often at the Candlemaker Way house. Watson’s cellphone number was also a frequent contact in that subject’s phone, police said. Investigation and surveillance revealed more than 50 different vehicles visiting the residence on Candlemaker Way, and Watson was reportedly seen to be in possession of three vehicles worth over $200,000 each, living in a house valued at over $430,000, and with a social security number showing no employment records on file with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Surveillance noted Watson making trips to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and to Maryland during the summer in which he spent less time at either destination than it took to get there, according to the complaint. A total of 15 controlled purchases of Oxycodone from Watson were made using a confidential subject from May into July, police said.

On July 17, three suspected drug purchases were observed by surveillance, police said, before a confidential source agreed to buy Oxycodone from Watson, all inside the Candlemaker Way home. Two days later, Watson was detained and a search warrant was served on the house, and police allegedly found about $4,000 in a bedroom, and roughly $800 on Watson, with denominations used during the controlled purchases. Police also say they found one pill later identified to be Oxycodone on Watson, and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle was found in the house, which Watson was prohibited from having due to the felony drug conviction from Texas from 1999.

Police also reportedly found inside the house a quarter stick of dynamite that was later identified as a forbidden explosive device by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad. Watson later called police from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and said he would use the dynamite on the neighbors, police said.

Two cellphones were found on Watson after search warrants were issued, and one allegedly contained text messages consistent with drug trafficking and sales, while the other allegedly had images of Watson and others handling and posing with the AR-15, and videos of Watson rapping with lyrics referencing gun violence, drug dealing, and rivals cooperating with police.

Watson was originally arrested in July and charged with four felonies and three misdemeanors related to drug and firearm possession, according to court records. Revised charges were filed on Sept. 20 that included a total of eight felony counts each of possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility, single felony counts of possession a prohibited firearm and prohibited weapon of mass destruction, 18 misdemeanor counts of making bomb threats, and misdemeanor charges for possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

His next date in court will be a formal arraignment on Nov. 28, according to Levine and court records.