LAKE COUNTY — Drug interdiction efforts by narcotics detection K-9 teams attached to the Sheriff”s Special Enforcement Detail (SED) this week have resulted in two felony arrests and the seizure of cocaine, methamphetamine, and cash for asset forfeiture.
On Thursday at approximately 4:40 p.m. a Sheriff”s K-9 team assigned to the SED stopped a black Chevy Camaro being driven by Cheryl Denise Lewis, 52, on Old Highway 53 in Clearlake. Lewis did not have a valid driver”s license. Her passenger Joseph Lee Williams, 61, of Clearlake, told the deputy he possessed a valid license. While waiting for Sheriff”s dispatch to confirm his license was valid, Williams consented to a search. Williams began removing articles from his pockets and was found to have a quantity of “crack” cocaine in one of his pants pockets.
Williams was arrested and booked at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility for possession of a narcotic controlled substance. He remains in the custody of the Sheriff with a $10,000 bail.
On Friday at approximately 1:30 p.m., SED deputies were patrolling the Clearlake Oaks area when they spotted Luther Gene Weathers, 57, driving his blue Ford pick-up truck on Third Street near Keys Boulevard. Deputies knew Weathers” driver”s license had been suspended and initiated a traffic stop. As Weathers stopped his truck, he abruptly got out and ran around the truck with his hand in his pocket in an apparent attempt to conceal or dispose of contraband.
Weathers was detained and determined to be under the influence of a controlled substance. Incident to his arrest, deputies searched Weathers and recovered a bag of methamphetamine and a glass “meth” pipe from his pants pocket. More than $600 was also seized from Weathers as the suspected profits of drug sales.
Because of the furtive movements Weathers made when he exited the truck, deputies searched the area around the truck and located a white plastic cylinder in the grass approximately 15-feet from the truck. The cylinder was believed to have been tossed by Weathers and deputies found that it contained more than a third of an ounce of methamphetamine packaged in several plastic bags.
Weathers was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility where he was booked for possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sales, transportation of a controlled substance, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Weathers was also arrested on March 14 for similar offenses when a search warrant was served at his home by the Sheriff”s Narcotics Task Force. A quarter ounce of methamphetamine, numerous narcotic medications, and more than $1,000 were also seized during that arrest. He was out of custody on bail from that arrest when deputies stopped him on Friday. Because of multiple prior arrests for sales of controlled substances, Weathers remains in the custody of the Sheriff with an enhanced bail of $150,000.
