Released by the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office …
HOLMES COUNTY – Holmes County Sheriff’s K-9 Highway assisted in two unrelated felony drug arrests earlier this week.
A deputy with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office conducted a traffic stop on Highway 90 in the area of Meridith Lane in Ponce de Leon around 8:30 p.m. Monday, August 12, and made contact with the driver, 38-year-old James Eric Petty of Kingston, Alabama.
A computer check through the Holmes County Communications Center revealed that Petty was driving on a suspended license. During the course of the interaction, Petty complied with a request to empty his pockets, revealing a cigar pack that held marijuana.
K-9 Highway then performed a free air sniff of the vehicle, alerting to the presence of narcotics. A subsequent search of the vehicle led to the discovery of a glass pipe containing a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
Petty was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana less than 20 grams.
Shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, August 13, another HCSO deputy initiated a traffic stop on Highway 90 in the area of Parker Grant Road in Bonifay.
During the course of the traffic stop, K-9 Highway performed a free air sniff of the vehicle and alerted to the presence of narcotics. Deputies conducted a search of the vehicle and located a bag where the vehicle’s passenger, 30-year-old Victoria J. Wakefield of Westville, had been sitting.
The bag held a straw containing a white powdery substance identified by Wakefield as a crushed Lortab, as well as a metal tube that held a small bag of methamphetamine.
Wakefield was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. She is additionally charged with resisting arrest without violence after initially refusing to cooperate with the deputy’s attempts to place her in the transport vehicle.