A wanted felon, a sex offender, and two drug users step out of a car. That’s not the start of the latest water-cooler joke, but instead what Memphis Police officers encountered in the parking lot of America’s Best Value Inn on American Way.
On February 26th, Officers Fleener and Bond were on patrol checking hotels in a high drug area and observed a silver Lincoln SUV with several individuals inside parked at America’s Best Value Inn on American Way. Officers initiated a consensual encounter and a male was sitting in the passenger front that was identified as Rickie Wise, who showed to have an outside warrant. Officer Fleener asked Rickie to step out of the vehicle and was detained.
Officer Bond then asked the driver, later identified as Carlos Benton, if there was anything illegal in the vehicle. Carlos admitted there was a blunt in the vehicle and was detained.
Officers then asked the remaining two people that were sitting in the back to step out of the vehicle. The male that was sitting in the passenger rear seat claimed he did not have identification. Officer Bond identified him as Gregory Toney and showed as a sex offender. Gregory was taken into custody by Officers Bond and Fleener.
Officers Fleener and Murphy asked the remaining person, a female later identified as 32-year-old Kathleen Clash, to also step out of the vehicle. Officer Fleener initiated a pat down and found on her person a cut straw in her right pocket, which is typically used to consume narcotics. Officer Fleener asked Kathleen what the item was, and she stated it was for her Fentanyl and her bars. Officer Fleener then found a pack of cigarettes in her jacket pocket with folded up plastic wrapping, which is typically used to hold narcotics in powder form. When Kathleen asked what it was, she admitted it was Fentanyl. Officer Moore then searched Kathleen’s purse and found a gray rock-like substance was wrapped in a lottery ticket, 3 small buds of a green leafy substance wrapped in a paper receipt, a glass pipe, 2 Xanax pills, and 2 cut straws.
The green leafy substance tested positive for marijuana with a TGW of 1.8, the gray rock-like substance tested positive for Crack Cocaine with a TGW of 0.3, the white powder in the plastic wrap tested positive for Fentanyl with a TGW of 0.4.
Kathleen Clash was arrested and charged with Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell, Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Sell, Possession of Legend Drug Without Prescription, Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond was set at $40,000.
