A Leesburg man’s attempt to safeguard his girlfriend’s life resulted in her arrest early Friday morning after a traffic stop.
A Eustis police officer stopped the couple’s car on a speeding violatin at the Exxon station near the intersection of State Road 19 and County Road 452 in Eustis.
The officer asked the driver for his license. The passenger identified herself as 20-year-old Stephanie Marie Tharp of Leesburg. She appeared to be intoxicated and told the officer she had been drinking at Fat Cats in Mount Dora.
While the officer was writing a warning ticket for speeding, another Eustis officer arrived and asked the driver if he could search the car. The driver consented and he and Tharp moved to the back of the car where the man emptied his pockets.
The officer noted that the man had a can of Narcan nasal spray. Narcan is an emergency overdose medication. When asked by the officer why the man had the Narcan, he said that his girlfriend was addicted to narcotics and he kept the Narcan in case she overdosed, according to the Eustis officer’s arrest report.
Tharp consented to the search of her purse where the officer located several Clonazepam pills which are a controlled substance requiring prescription. Tharp could not provide a prescription and was placed under arrest for possession of a controlled substance. She was booked at the Lake County Jail and released after posting $2,000 bond.
