Butler woman held for court in drug case
There was no clean getaway for a Butler woman following a traffic stop this month in the city.
Inside a fake container of Ajax cleanser — stashed in a hidden compartment — were 35 stamp bags of suspected narcotics. The can with the false bottom was in a rental car that Tamela L. Stevens was driving May 2, according to court testimony.
The testimony came at a preliminary hearing for Stevens, 46, of Butler. District Judge William Fullerton found there was sufficient evidence to hold her for court on felony and misdemeanor drug possession charges.
Butler Patrolman Michael Sulerud said he was on duty about 10:40 p.m. when he recognized the defendant driving in the area of Miller Avenue and West Penn Street. He also knew her license was suspended.
The officer pulled her over in a store parking lot on West Jefferson Street. She had a front-seat passenger, a 32-year-old woman, with her.
After he confirmed Stevens' license was suspended, and found out the passenger's license also was suspended, Sulerud called a tow truck to haul the car from the store lot.
But before the tow, police conducted a routine inventory search of the car. Sulerud said he noticed a cylindrical Ajax can in the back seat floorboard behind the passenger seat. The bottom of the can was cracked open.
“I suspected the container to have a false compartment, or a hidden compartment, inside the container with a false bottom,” he testified.
He opened up the can and found 35 glassine bags of suspected heroin or fentanyl wrapped inside a paper towel. The container also had drug-packaging materials, he said.
A search of Stevens' small purse, the officer said, turned up $992 in currency. Sulerud said he arrested the defendant and seized the evidence, including her cell phone.
Lab results on the suspected drugs are pending, he told prosecutor Laura Pitchford, a county assistant district attorney. He said police obtained a search warrant to examine the cell phone, which, too, is pending.
“We have been also receiving additional information from multiple sources,” Sulerud said, “that Ms. Tamela Stevens has been involved in the drug trade in Butler City.”
On questioning by the defendant's attorney, public defender Michael McFarland, the officer acknowledged that he could not see the contents of the fake Ajax can before he opened it.
“Did you ask her if anyone else had used the car prior to the car having been stopped,” McFarland asked Sulerud.
“No,” he replied. The officer also said that Stevens denied knowing the container was in the vehicle.
“In fact, the location of the can, I think, is more consistent with maybe the passenger being the person that possessed that item as opposed to (Stevens),” McFarland argued, following testimony, in asking Fullerton to dismiss the criminal charges.
“The facts don't necessarily attribute those drugs to her,” he added.
Pitchford, however, pointed to the car being rented in the defendant's name, the container with the suspected drugs in the car, and the nearly $1,000 in her purse.
“I think the totality of the circumstances,” Pitchford said, “suggests she was involved in the sale (of drugs), especially since there were packaging materials found.”
Stevens is headed for trial on a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and a summary charge of driving during suspension.
She is in the Butler County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bond.
