Suspect faces even more drug charges
A Summit Township man already awaiting trial in two felony drug cases is facing even more charges — this time for allegedly selling crack cocaine in Butler.
Bradley E. Weitzel, 29, on Wednesday turned himself in to authorities at the office of District Judge William Fullerton in the city, where he was arraigned on drug trafficking charges.
Fullerton on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Weitzel.
The warrant stems from a Butler County Drug Task Force investigation during which Weitzel and a police informant set up a purported drug deal April 13.
The two met that evening in the 400 block of South Main Street in Butler, investigators said, where the defendant sold crack to the informant for $100, according to court documents.
Weitzel is charged with delivery of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, both felonies, and misdemeanor drug possession.
He was placed on pretrial supervision and released on his own recognizance following arraignment.
The latest charges were filed Tuesday and came nearly two months after Weitzel was released from the Butler County Prison so he could receive in-patient drug rehabilitation treatment, authorities said.
He was jailed April 29 following a traffic stop in Butler where city police and county narcotics officers found him with 72 stamp bags of heroin and a baggie of crack cocaine.
Additionally, he had two used syringes and a crack pipe.
In his car, court documents said, officers also turned up a label-less prescription bottle with 11 pills of the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam.
He was arraigned on charges of felony and misdemeanor drug possession and placed in the county prison on $50,000 bail.
Five days after his arrest, the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department filed their own felony drug case against Weitzel. The charges in that case also stemmed from a traffic stop.
Police said that during the March 15 stop in Evans City they seized heroin and more than 70 pills of anti-anxiety medication for which the defendant did not have a prescription.
The two prior cases are pending trial in county court.
Weitzel was released from prison on Aug. 24, court records showed, after the court approved his request to attend an in-patient drug treatment program.
