How to resolve AdBlock issue? US District Court Judge Charles Breyer sentenced 30-year-old Patrick Steven Pearmain to 150 months – or 12 and a half years – in federal prison, to be followed by 10 years’ supervised release. He’s also to pay $6,778.28 in restitution.
Pearmain pleaded guilty in October to charges of conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute and distribute marijuana and employment of a minor to violate drug laws. His sentencing took place on April 19, according to court records.
The government motion to dismiss a remaining count against Pearmain of manufacturing marijuana was dismissed.
On the same day as he was sentenced, Pearmain was remanded to the custody of the US Marshal, with the court recommending he be housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, a low-security prison for male offenders.
His co-defendant, Ryan Alan Balletto, 36, of Lakeport is set to be sentenced on July 10 in San Francisco, based on his case records.
In a change of plea hearing held before Judge Breyer Dec. 7, Balletto pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute and distribute marijuana, possession of firearms in furtherance of narcotics trafficking and employment of a minor to violate drug laws.
The case against them began in May 2013, when the Lake County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team, Narcotics Task Force and Major Crimes Unit served a search warrant at a 681-acre property owned by Balletto in Clearlake Oaks.
The warrant service led to the seizure of nearly 1,500 marijuana plants, $4,000 in cash and what authorities called a “sophisticated bulk of weapons” totaling 22 firearms including high powered military grade sniper and assault rifles, automatic assault rifles and pistols.
In the following weeks, the investigation led authorities from a number of agencies to determine that the men had kept a 15-year-old runaway girl from Southern California at a remote grow location for about a month before their arrests, sexually assaulting her and keeping her in a metal box as punishment.
By June 2013, the Lake County District Attorney’s Office had charged the pair with human trafficking and a host of sex-related crimes – statutory rape, oral copulation on a person under age 16, sodomy, false imprisonment, and annoying or molesting a child. Balletto also was charged with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under age 14 or 15.
However, the following month, the District Attorney’s Office dropped its charges as the US Attorney’s Office secured indictments of Balletto and Pearmain and took over the case.
Then-District Attorney Don Anderson said the two men were facing much more severe penalties in the federal prosecution than they would have locally.
Balletto and Pearmain subsequently were transported from the Lake County Jail to federal custody in the Bay Area, where they have remained over the past six years.
In the years since the federal government has taken over the case, the prosecution of the two men has followed a complex process that has included repeated status hearings, attorney appointments, time waivers filings due to the length of the proceedings and the need for attorney preparation, and change of plea hearings, based on the docket history.
A jury trial had been scheduled for May 2016 but later was vacated. Reasons cited at the time in court filings included “significant progress in settlement discussions” which, however, didn’t appear to have yielded the anticipated results in the coming months, based on court documents.
At the same time, it was noted in a May 2016 document, “counsel for the government and counsel for Mr. Balletto have discussed a recent incident which raises the possibility that Mr. Balletto’s mental condition may need to be evaluated prior to proceeding further with this matter.” The issue was not disclosed in the public documents and it appeared that, after further requests for time for research, it was resolved, as it was not raised again by 2017.
Numerous documents relating to the two men’s plea agreements with the federal government remain under seal.
Those documents include the April sentencing memorandum, which Pearmain’s attorney asked be filed under seal because the plea agreement was also sealed, “and in order to protect the privacy interests of the defendant.”
In Balletto’s case, since his December change of plea hearing, his sentencing date has been reset four times, including dates in April, this week and next month before being reset to July 10.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
