Three people face a variety of drug charges after the driver of the vehicle rolled through a stop sign in front of an Austin Police officer on Monday, Feb. 24.
Officer Josh Vires was patrolling in the area of English Avenue shortly before 9 p.m. when he observed a white passenger vehicle roll through a stop sign at English and 4th Street. He pulled over the vehicle and made contact with the driver, Christina McCartney, 40, of Indianapolis.
As Vires was preparing to write a written warning for the infraction, Scot County Sheriff’s Deputy Zach Brown and his K-9 partner Zeus arrived to assist.
Conducting and open air walk around the vehicle Zeus gave a positive indication of drugs in the vehicle. Officers had McCartney and her passengers, Steven McCormick, 35, of Franklin and Terrie Hanner, 64, of Austin steep out of thee vehicle to allow officers to look for illegal substances.
APD Officer Anthony White located a brown bag containing a syringe, a blue container containing a brown sticky residue, a pink container containing a white powdery residue, two glass smoking devices containing a burnt residue inside in the floorboard of the rear passenger side, the only seat which was not occupied.
Sergeant Brown located a spoon containing a white powdery residue under the driver’s seat, a brown a silver-colored smoking device between the driver’s seat and center console and a pink and blue smoking device located in a Styrofoam fountain drink, in the back driver’s seat. APD Officer Jacob Lekens located a silver-colored cap containing a brown sticky substance at the side of the passenger seat.
Thee white powdery substance later tested to be methamphetamine.
With none of the passengers admitting to ownership of the drugs or paraphernalia, all three were booked into Scott County Jail and now facing charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of narcotic drug, possession of s syringe, possession of drug paraphernalia.
Thee driver, McCartney, was also charged with maintaining a common nuisance; McCormick and Hanner were each charged with visiting a common nuisance.
Last Wednesday, Scott Circuit Court Magistrate Alison T. Frazier set McCartney’s and McCormick’s bond at $25,000. Hanner’s bond was set at $15,000.