Vice squad raids E. Butler home
EAST BUTLER — A half-dozen marijuana plants, grow lights, chemicals and filtration equipment were seized Thursday morning from a borough home during a raid by state police vice officers, authorities said.
Troopers arrested William F. Mellish, 46, and Diane D. McCallister, 41, who live at the house on the 1400 block of Grant Avenue Extension.
The couple is facing felony and misdemeanor drug charges stemming from the suspected indoor marijuana grow operation. They are being held in the Butler County Prison on $10,000 bail.
Police went to the house around 6:10 a.m. with a sealed search warrant, investigators said. The defendants were at the home along with an 18-year-old man and three children, ages 10, 14 and 15.
The relationship between the couple and the teenagers and 10-year-old was not immediately known.Officers found six suspected marijuana plants and a grow light in a closet of Mellish's and McCallister's bedroom, according to court documents.In a bathroom off that bedroom, police said they turned up a tool box containing processed marijuana, a digital scale, pruning shears and a bottle of growing chemicals.The garage had other items, documents said, that included three additional grow lights, a water pump, filtering system and more bottles of chemicals.District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned the defendants on felony charges of manufacture and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, possession of a small amount of marijuana and child endangerment.Preliminary hearings for the defendants are scheduled for Feb. 26 at Stoughton's office in Chicora.
