Drug, endangerment charges filed
A woman was caught with dozens of bags of suspected heroin and hundreds of dollars, after Butler police say they found her Tuesday night passed out at the wheel of a car with a young child in the back seat.
Jessie L. Dick, 38, of Butler was arrested and placed in Butler County Prison on charges including felony drug possession and child endangerment.
Police were called shortly before 9 p.m. for a report of a woman slouched over the steering wheel of a vehicle that was blocking a fire hydrant in the 400 block of Zeigler Avenue.
Officers found Dick unresponsive, according to court documents, and they had to knock on the window several times before she awakened.
“She was delirious and confused,” police said, alleging she was impaired on drugs.
When she rolled down the window officers smelled marijuana coming from the car. They looked in the back seat and noticed a small child, about 2 years old, who was crying and sweating.
The relationship between the defendant and child was not indicated in charging documents. The arresting officer, Patrolman Kevin Novak, could not be reached Wednesday.
The defendant denied there was marijuana in the car, documents said, and she allowed police to search the vehicle.
But in her open purse that was on the center console, officers found a marijuana grinder with suspected marijuana in it.
Next to the grinder, police said, was a bag containing 40 stamp bags of suspected heroin packed in rice. The stamp bags were wrapped in four equal bundles.
“While speaking with Dick,” Novak said in his affidavit, “she did inform officers that she does not use heroin.”
A representative of Butler County Children and Youth Services later drug tested Dick, who had no opiates in her system. CYS also took custody of the child.
Police searched the defendant and found her with $553 in currency.
Because of the amount of heroin and currency they found, documents said, police believe Dick was “dealing drugs.”
District Judge William Fullerton on Wednesday arraigned her on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, endangering the welfare of a child, and possession of a controlled substance and a small amount of marijuana.
She was in the county prison on $20,000 bail. As part of her bail conditions, Dick is barred from having unsupervised contact with children and she is required to follow all CYS-imposed requirements.
