HOLLIDAYSBURG — Two Altoona men are on trial this week in Blair County court, where they are charged with roles in a drug-trafficking ring that allegedly forced local women to engage in sex for drugs in 2019 and 2020.

Tony D. Ross, 48, and Derrick “Tat” McNeal, 55, are accused of involvement in an enterprise that First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith described as part of the evil that happens in Altoona’s dark world where drug-trafficking predators are found.

Monday’s testimony included female witnesses and family members who identified Ross and McNeal as part of a drug-

trafficking ring that supplied access to meth and heroin in exchange for sex.

Altoona police charged them and three others — Donald “The Rev” Dargan, Sean Atkins and Quincy Wilson — with drug trafficking, human trafficking, sexual assault, rape and related offenses. Dargan also faces drug delivery resulting in death, filed after 38-year-old Colleen Buck was found dead of a drug overdose in January 2021 in his apartment on the 800 block of Sixth Avenue.

Dargan is currently scheduled for trial in February, while Atkins’ and Wilson’s charges are currently on hold.

In court Monday, a 37-year-old woman told the jury that she’s been addicted to meth for the 13 months she has been incarcerated. In a quiet voice, she told the jury that she and others got drugs from Ross, Atkins and Wilson in exchange for sex.

She described being at Atkins’ residence, on Eighth or Ninth Avenue near Seventh Street, when a line formed inside the residence.

“(They) were waiting for their next hit or for people to sleep with them,” the woman said.

Another witness told the jury that she and her husband had bought meth from Wilson, who started staying with her at her Sixth Avenue residence after her husband was incarcerated.

She said it was Wilson who invited Ross and Atkins to her residence and started supplying her with meth, then sexually assaulted her in her own bedroom while she was under the influence and unconscious.

“I fell asleep and woke up with (Ross) on top of me,” the woman said. “He was naked except for a shirt and his penis was inside my mouth.”

Another witness, now 24 years old, told the jury that Ross didn’t ask her for sex. But she said he transported her to a local motel where he had set up arrangements with a man described as a teacher who just got out of a bad divorce.

“He said I was going to go in there and pretend to sleep with him to get money,” the woman said.

While she told the jury that she didn’t engage in sex with the man, she admitted to taking the man’s $600 and leaving. She said she split the $600 with Ross and another woman.

District Attorney Pete Weeks also called upon Damien Hild, a county prison inmate facing drug-

delivery charges, who told the jury that he was regularly selling meth to Atkins and Wilson so he could afford the cost of his own meth and heroin addiction.

He testified about walking through Dargan’s apartment, where there were naked women and he was told to keep his eyes forward. He also spoke of being in Atkins’ apartment, where “there was a lot of activity, with people going in and out” as he delivered drugs.

Defense attorney Kristen Anastasi, who represents Ross, and A. Thomas Farrell, representing McNeal, have repeatedly asked the testifying witnesses for more details about their recollections.

The woman who spoke about waking up to being sexually assaulted by Ross couldn’t answer when that incident occurred.

“I was high on drugs and don’t remember,” she said.

Anastasi also asked the witness if she remembered telling Ross that it was Atkins who raped her. The witness said she didn’t remember telling anyone initially and didn’t go to police because she was on drugs and knew of warrants for her arrest.

Anastasi also asked the witness if she recalled Ross reviving an overdose victim at her residence with Narcan and CPR. The witness said she remembered that.

In response to Farrell’s questions, several witnesses said they didn’t know McNeal and had no interactions with him. But family members of a drug-addicted woman who was raped told the jury they were familiar with McNeal, although one didn’t know McNeal’s name and incorrectly suggested that he might be “Rev,” which is Dargan’s nickname. In her opening statement, Smith spoke of McNeal’s involvement in the woman’s rape, to be developed through additional testimony and an audio recording.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.