Lynn man gets 7 years for drugs

SALEM – A Lynn man who admitted selling drugs from a Peabody motel and on the streets in Lynn is headed to prison for up to seven years.Harvey R. Washington, II, 48, who last lived at 11 Michigan Ave., Apt. 3, in Lynn, changed his plea to guilty Wednesday afternoon in Salem Superior Court, admitting to possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and distribution of cocaine.He was sentenced to serve not less than five years and not more than seven years in state prison from Judge Howard J. Whitehead.The judge sentenced Washington in accordance with the recommendation offered by Assistant District Attorney Kristen R. Buxton and defense lawyer Anthony Rozzi.In the winter of 2007, Washington sold cocaine to a series of customers who came and went from the Carriage House Motel on Newbury Street in Peabody.Police set up surveillance and on March 9 when police got a search warrant they went to Room 55 and began questioning his female friend, Sally Ann DeCotis, who had rented the room. Police noticed Washington pulling into the motel parking lot as a passenger in a truck driven by another woman.When he and the driver spotted police, Washington jumped out of the truck and began to run away on foot up Route 1, but was quickly apprehended by police.Police seized nearly eight grams of crack and powdered cocaine from his front pocket along with $300 in cash, Buxton said.Then while out on bail, on June 6, he was arrested in Lynn in a vehicle on Howard Street with a bag of cocaine containing 4.26 grams.He told Lynn Police Officer Paul Holey that he wasn’t selling the cocaine, he was giving it to the female driver.Washington has been held in custody in lieu of bail and will receive credit for the time he has already spent awaiting trial on his two cases.