A report to police of a dog running at large ultimately led to the arrest of three people on drug charges.
CPD officer Zach Elliott reported that he was contacted about a dog running loose near Myres Street on Crothersville’s westside. He reported that he located the dog but was unable to catch it. Youngsters playing in the area directed Elliott to where the dog may belong.
Going to a residence in the 200 block of Myres Street the officer went up to the front porch where the front door was open.
“Before I got to the front porch there was a very strong odor of marijuana coming from the doorway,” Elliott said in the probable cause affidavit.
He was met at the door by Amy Watkins, 44, who said the dog did not belong to her. When questioned about the smell of marijuana, she acknowledged that a joint had been smoked inside the residence. She gave the officer permission to search her home.
According to the court document, Elliott located several burnt joints of marijuana, some unsmoked weed, and a picture frame with glass on a table that had white residue that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Watkins told the officer that the meth belonged to her friend named Heather who had stopped by earlier and had “done a line of meth in the bedroom,” according to the court document.
When asked, Watkins gave Elliott her cell phone and looking through messages Watkins had been communicating to several different individuals about buying illegal narcotics.
Elliott said on her phone was a text sent from Gary that he “got some new green now.” The officer said he was familiar with Gary Rutherford who lived a short distance away on West Walnut Street.
Officers left the Watkins residence and went to Rutherford’s residence where they were met by Heather Marie Hall, 33, of Plum Street in Austin who was standing outside her vehicle in Rutherford’s driveway. While talking with Hall, she gave officers permission to search her SUV.
There, Elliott said he found a glass pipe with an off-white rocklike substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, half a gram of marijuana, a marijuana grinder, and a cut straw with an off-white substance.
After Hall was placed into handcuffs she asked Elliott to call her husband to let him know what was going on. According to Elliott, when the phone was opened there was a text message about illegal narcotics on the screen. Hall told the officer “mind your own business.”
Hall was booked into Jackson County Jail at 6:09 p.m. May 28 charged with possession of meth, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia.
Later that evening, Watkins was seen by officers approaching Rutherford’s residence and was arrested. She was booked into Jackson County Jail at 9:30 p.m. on May 28 where she faces charges of possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. After posting a $1,505 bond she was released at 11:50 a.m. on June 3.
Based on information from Watkins and Hall’s cell phones, officers waited for Rutherford to return to his residence to question him.
According to the probable cause document, when Rutherford returned home from church, he was questioned by police and gave permission for them to search his residence.
According to Elliott, officers located several illegal items. In the freezer officers located several bags containing 91 grams plant material that tested positive for marijuana. On a workbench was a glass that contained an off-white substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, under the kitchen table in a magnetic box stuck to the bottom on the table was a baggie that contained a rock-like substance that tested positive for meth.
Gary Rutherford, 56, of the 300 block of West Walnut St., was booked into Jackson County Jail at 10:13 p.m. on May 28 charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, and maintaining a common nuisance. He was released from jail at 6:53 p.m. on June 3 after posting a $1,505 bond.
The dog remains at large.