| 11/24/2003 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Three arrested on drug charges
By: Wayne Engle
Courier Staff Writer
Marijuana, opium and what was alleged to be methamphetamine were found in a Cragmont Street house where three people were arrested on drug charges Friday night.
Robert Lee Smith, 26; his wife, Amanda Smith, 25; and Chastity Pender, 27, all were arrested after Madison Police officers allegedly smelled “a strong odor of marijuana” from outside the residence at 112 Cragmont St. where the Smiths live. Officers also said in their written reports that they looked through an open window on the east side of the residence and saw the three smoking marijuana in a bedroom.
Robert Smith and Amanda Smith each are charged with maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony; and possession of marijuana, a Class A misdemeanor. Pender, who lives at 182 Megan Lane, Milton, Ky., is charged with visiting a common nuisance.
Capt. Dan Stephan and patrolmen Jamie Royce and Leslie Hamm were looking for a suspect in a theft case in the 1000 block of West First Street Friday night. When they were told that the suspect visited a resident of the area on Cragmont Street, the officers approached that house, where they could hear people inside laughing and coughing, according to their report.
Hamm wrote in his report that as he approached the front door he could smell “a very strong odor” of what he believed to be marijuana, and that he followed the smell to the east side of the residence. Both Hamm and Royce wrote that there, through an open, unshaded window, they could see two women and a man in a bedroom, smoking what appeared to be marijuana. They saw a bag of what appeared to be marijuana laying on the bed.
When officers knocked on the front door, the two women answered it. Pender professed ignorance when asked what she had done with “the baggy,” as did Robert Smith when Hamm went to the bedroom where he was. But after being told officers had seen what was going on in that room through the window, Robert Smith opened a drawer in a vanity and retrieved a different bag containing what appeared to be marijuana.
Hamm also found a large tin with more leafy green material that police said looked and smelled like the illegal substance; two pill bottles containing marijuana seeds; several pipes and drug paraphernalia; a black, tarry substance which later was analyzed and proved to be opium; and a small bag and drug paraphernalia that contained a small amount of white powder.
Tests of the other substances proved them to be marijuana and opium, the report said.
All three people appeared in Jefferson Superior Court for their initial hearings this morning. Both Smiths’ trial dates were set for Feb. 13, 2004, with their bonds being set at $2,000, any kind, each. Pender’s trial was set for Jan. 27, with her bond being $500, any kind. All three were released on bond later this morning.
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