Minor traffic violation leads to drugs
A defective license plate light proved costly for a Butler man.
A short time after the early Monday morning traffic stop in Butler for the seemingly minor violation, state police said they found him riding in the vehicle with more than a dozen bags of suspected crack cocaine.
The passenger-now-defendant, Christopher D. Reinhart, 39, landed in Butler County Prison on felony and other drug charges.
Police said patrol troopers about 2:45 a.m. spotted a Jeep Cherokee with its license plate light not working in the area of Chestnut Street and Virginia Avenue. They pulled the vehicle over.
The driver eventually allowed officers to search the Jeep. A subsequent pat-down search of Reinhart, who admitted that he was carrying a knife, followed.
Police said they found a bundle of mostly empty stamp bags of suspected heroin in his sweatpants.
A further search turned up an unlabeled pill bottle in Reinhart's right shoe, according to court documents. In the bottle, police said, were 14 baggies of what appeared to be crack.
“Reinhart stated it was in fact crack cocaine,” according to a police affidavit.
District Judge Kevin O'Donnell arraigned Reinhart on a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
Reinhart is in the county jail on $15,000 bail while awaiting his preliminary hearing March 26.
