Jail inmates charged with drug crimes

A judge ordered this week that Anita K. Emery, 24, of California remain in St. Mary’s jail in lieu of $3,500 bond on charging papers alleging she illegally possessed the drug zolpidem tartrate, a prescription sleeping medication, while incarcerated at the facility.

St. Mary’s narcotics detectives allege that Emery was trying to ingest two of the pills contained in a lip balm canister on Feb. 21, and swallowed one of them as correctional officers entered her cell. They recovered the other pill.

Emery was sentenced last month to serve 30 days in jail, with work-release privileges and credit for nine days served in pretrial custody, on her guilty plea to conspiring to possess oxycodone, from a police investigation last June at the jail. Initial district court charging papers alleged that Emery, in custody at that time for a theft offense, was the intended recipient of a delivery of suspected oxycodone pills and suspected alprazolam pills seized from someone arriving at the jail, and that another inmate already had made a payment to receive some of the pills from Emery.

In addition, Bobbie A. Cavey, 48, of Mechanicsville was released last Saturday on 10 percent of $1,000 bond after she also was charged with possessing zolpidem tartrate on Feb. 21 at the jail. Narcotics detectives allege that while investigators made contact with Cavey, she removed a lip balm stick from her body and started ingesting its contents, before the medication was recovered.

Online court records state that Cavey pleaded guilty the day before to driving on Chancellor’s Run Road last December with a revoked license, and that a judge sentenced her to serve 10 days in jail.

Man indicted for marijuana

St. Mary’s grand jurors have indicted Tyreise Divron Nelson, 20, of Lexington Park on a charge of the possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute the drug on Jan. 3 in Lexington Park.

Initial district court charging papers allege that police seized a bag of marijuana from a sweatshirt Nelson was wearing, when he was found sitting in the back seat of a car that St. Mary’s sheriff’s deputy Michael Boyer stopped for going through a stop sign at the intersection of Midway Drive and Pegg Road. A digital pocket scale with marijuana residue also was found in the vehicle, court papers state, tucked under the back seat.

Van torched in Mechanicsville

An unknown culprit ignited the interior of a 2001 Ford E-250 van early Sunday morning at Woodburn Hill Road in Mechanicsville, state investigators report, before a nearby resident spotted the blaze and called 911 dispatchers.

Six Mechanicsville volunteer firefighters responding to a 12:47 a.m. alarm brought the blaze under control within five minutes, but the vehicle owned by Maria Lemus was destroyed by the fire, according to a notice of investigation from the response by deputy state fire marshal Dexter Hodges.

The fire marshal’s office requested that anyone with information about the blaze call 443-550-6820.

Reward offered for tips in cases

Citizens with information about unsolved crimes in St. Mary’s can collect a cash reward by calling St. Mary’s County Crime Solvers 24 hours a day at 301-475-3333. They can withhold their name and later collect their reward through a number-identification system.

The Crime Solvers program assists law enforcement in solving open investigations that may not have been closed without the extra incentive of anonymity and an offer of a reward, providing the information leads to an arrest or indictment.

The Crime Solvers board of directors meets at 10 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the county’s Northern Senior Center in Charlotte Hall. To be considered for membership on the board, attend a meeting or call the Crime Solvers chairperson at 301-884-5417 for details.

Contributions to the Crime Solvers reward fund can be mailed to St. Mary’s Crime Solvers Inc. at P.O. Box 221, Mechanicsville, MD 20659.

Sheriff welcomes text-message tips

Cellphones and other handheld communication devices can be used to send text messages with tips for the St. Mary’s sheriff’s office, by texting TIP239, plus the message, to CRIMES, numerically 274637. For more information on the text-message program, go online to www.smscrimetips.com.

Police tips line open

Maryland State Police in Leonardtown operate a Tips Line at 301-475-2936, inviting anyone with information about a crime that has occurred, or they expect may occur, to anonymously report that information 24 hours a day to authorities. Citizens may use the same telephone number to report concerns to police that do not involve criminal activity.

JOHN WHARTON