Perham man gets 98-month prison sentence in meth trafficking case

A Perham man is headed to prison for 98 months after deputies found methamphetamine, hundreds of small baggies and a digital scale in the wake of a high-speed chase on Highway 10.

Larry Burian McClendon Jr., 56, pleaded guilty to first-degree sale of drugs after Otter Tail County deputies said they stopped him following the December 26, 2025 pursuit. One of the bags submitted to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension weighed 55 grams, a quantity that put the case well into felony trafficking territory under Minnesota law.

The chase itself reflected why deputies and prosecutors treated the case as more than simple possession. Earlier reporting on the pursuit said officers used multiple PIT maneuvers as the vehicle sped up to about 95 miles per hour on Highway 10. The deputy eventually broke off the chase for safety reasons, and the vehicle later slowed and went into a ditch before McClendon was taken into custody.

What deputies found afterward pointed to distribution, not personal use. Along with multiple bags of methamphetamine, investigators said they recovered the baggies commonly used for repackaging drugs for sale and a digital scale used to weigh them. In Minnesota, first-degree controlled-substance sale covers unlawfully selling 17 grams or more of methamphetamine within a 90-day period, making it one of the state’s most serious drug felonies.

The sentence adds another hard marker to a string of Perham meth cases that have drawn attention in Otter Tail County. In a separate December case, Matthew Steven Torgerson was sentenced to 115 months after authorities said he possessed more than 300 grams of methamphetamine. McClendon also had a prior local arrest in a prostitution-solicitation case reported in September.

Otter Tail County District Court, which sits at the courthouse in Fergus Falls and is part of Minnesota’s Seventh Judicial District, handled the case. Public court records are available through Minnesota Court Records Online, where hearing information and filings can be reviewed in state district court cases.

For Perham and surrounding towns, the sentence closes a case built on the kind of evidence prosecutors use to show street-level trafficking: a dangerous chase, a large drug quantity and packaging materials that suggested the meth was meant to be sold, not kept.