Nancy Hinchberger

An inmate is accused of having three bags of suspected crack cocaine three days after being booked into the Butler County Prison, authorities said.

Nancy A. Hinchberger, 52, of Butler was arraigned Tuesday on a felony charge of bringing a controlled substance into the prison. She remains behind bars on $10,000 bail in the case as well as on a probation detainer.

Her preliminary hearing was not immediately scheduled.

Correctional officers caught her with the alleged drugs Aug. 6, Butler County detectives said.

Hinchberger had been in the prison since Aug. 3 when Butler Township police arrested her on a bench warrant after they found her at a Route 8 motel.

A subsequent search, police said, turned up a baggie and a plastic container with suspected crack cocaine. She also allegedly had other drug contraband.

She was taken to the prison and placed in a dry cell over suspicion that she may have drugs hidden in her, according to charging documents.

A dry cell is a room that prisoners are placed in that lacks any plumbing facilities, such as a toilet or shower, if they are suspected of having contraband.

On Aug. 6, one of the officers found three bags containing what appeared to be crack, detectives said, that were in an empty drink container in the dry cell.

Tim Fennell, the county's chief detective, said the bags contained a combined 16.1 grams of suspected crack. He noted that weight amounted to more than just personal use.

Hinchberger, during an interview, told detectives that on Aug. 3 when police came to the motel room where she was, “she was afraid the room would be searched, so she hid the crack inside herself,” Fennell's affidavit said.

Hinchberger is awaiting a preliminary hearing Sept. 19 on misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia in the Butler Township police case.