Couple hiding at lodge busted
* Journal North
* Journal North News
By Journal Staff | Fri, Jun 14, 2013
Personnel from the Rio Arriba Sheriff's Office arrested a couple hiding at the Stone House Lodge at Heron Lake on Wednesday and also are investigating whether bounty hunters acted within their legal authority while pursuing the suspects at the same location last month.
Jason Raney, 36, and Heather Raney, 34, both wanted on warrants for failure to appear for required court hearings or appointments, were taken into custody after they were found barricaded in "secret rooms" at the lodge behind false walls, according to sheriff's office spokesman Jake Arnold. He said Jason Raney's mother is the proprietor of the lodge.
Jason Raney was found with a three-week-old flesh wound in his leg that hadn't had professional treatment, Arnold said. Raney told the sheriff's office he was shot when two bounty hunters for Goodfellas Bonding of Albuquerque were trying to take Heather Raney into custody as a bail-jumper on May 22.
Arnold said the bounty hunters acknowledged firing a shot but only as Jason Raney was trying to run them down with a car.
Arnold added that surveillance video from the lodge "puts the issue of whether Raney was using his vehicle as a weapon into real question."
The bounty hunters also say a gunshot was fired from inside the lodge, Arnold said, but sheriff's investigators haven't confirmed that.
A call seeking comment from Goodfellas was not returned.
Heather Raney was wanted as a bail jumper on a case from Bernalillo County where she faces charges of drug trafficking, drug possession and child abuse, Arnold said. Jason Raney, while wanted on a warrant or warrants for failure to appear, was not a bail jumper, Arnold said.
Sheriff's personnel first executed a search warrant looking for the Raneys at the lodge on May 28 but didn't find them.
Arnold said it appeared they had been moving from cabin to cabin at the lodge or possibly breaking into other residences in the area, including a cabin a few miles away where medical supplies were stolen and blood was left at the scene.
Using surveillance and information from an informant, deputies determined the Raneys were back at the Stone House Lodge this week and took them into custody in a SWAT operation on Wednesday, Arnold said. read more