A Maryland woman was arrested on drug charges after law enforcement stopped the vehicle she was driving late Tuesday evening.
Just before midnight Dec. 21, Private 1st Class Iambamrung, with the Morgantown Police Department, stopped a vehicle at the intersection of Kirk Street and University Avenue in Morgantown. The black Jeep Grand Cherokee was driving without headlights and did not have a registration tag, according to a criminal complaint.
Iambamrung said he spoke with the driver of the vehicle, Emily Catherine Bush, 31, of Cumberland, Md., and told her she had been pulled over for driving without headlights, the complaint said. There was also a passenger in the front seat of the vehicle.
The complaint stated Iambamrung asked Bush for her driver’s license, registration, insurance, and where she was coming from. Bush told the officer she was coming from Brockway Avenue, and when asked where she was going, she quickly replied, “Sheetz.”
Bush then provided her driver’s license, but no registration or insurance, which Iambamrung had to ask for a second time. The officer wrote in the complaint that Bush continued to look for the documents, but eventually said they were not her car and she couldn’t find them. Iambamrung asked who the vehicle belonged to, to which Bush replied, “his,” indicating the passenger.
Iambamrung identified the passenger who said the vehicle belonged to his sister. The pair was eventually able to find the registration and provided it to Iambamrung.
When additional officer PFC Breakiron arrived on scene, Iambamrung told Breakiron he could smell marijuana coming from inside the vehicle, the complaint said.
The officers then returned to the car and asked both occupants to step out of the vehicle and walked them back to the patrol car. Iambamrung stated in the complaint he then read both of them their rights and they both understood and did not wish to answer any questions.
Iambamrung told the pair he could smell marijuana coming from the car and wrote in the complaint, “Before I could continue, the passenger made an excited utterance that they did “smoke in the car earlier.” The officer said he then told them both that in West Virginia “this gives us probable cause for a search.”
While searching Bush, officers found 4.6 grams of marijuana in a baggie in her hoodie, along with 33.9 grams of crack cocaine, 8.4 grams of cocaine and 56.8 grams of methamphetamine in a bag shoved down her pants, the complaint said. Officers also found an additional gram of marijuana in a baggie in the front driver’s side door of the Jeep.
Bush was taken into police custody and charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit an offense against the state.
Bush is being held at North Central Regional Jail on a $25,000 bond. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Monongalia County Magistrate Court Jan. 3.
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