A Belleview woman and her Lady Lake companion were arrested on drug charges after being stopped with marijuana and methamphetamine.
An officer on patrol observed 48-year-old Tonya Joann Bowers beside 47-year-old William Frank Rysavy in a red Ford Focus heading north on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 around 6:40 p.m. Thursday, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department.
A check of the vehicle’s license plate determined the registered owner had a suspended license with several active suspensions. After stopping the vehicle at North Dixie Avenue, the officer asked Rysavy, the driver, for his license. He stated he did not have one, but the car was having mechanical issues. He nervously advised that he was driving it for Bowers, the report said.
A subsequent check of his license determined it had been suspended. He had been labeled a habitual traffic offender in 2005, and his license had not been reinstated, the report said.
With probable cause that a crime was being committed, the officer deployed a K-9 to check for narcotics. The K-9 alerted to the odor of narcotics, and Rysavy was asked to step out of the vehicle. The officer held the door open for Rysavy, who tried to close it, and told him several times to walk to the front of his patrol vehicle, the report said.
A subsequent search of the vehicle yielded a plastic baggie of methamphetamine between the driver’s seat and the driver’s door. The passenger side contained a small blue pouch on the floorboard. This had another small plastic wrapper that contained suspected methamphetamine and several cut plastic straws with residue, the report said.
Also on the floorboard sat a black backpack. Inside were six plastic baggies, each with a similar amount of marijuana. A seventh baggie, containing a slightly smaller amount of marijuana, was found in the blue pouch, the report said.
When asked about these discoveries, Rysavy advised that the bag of methamphetamine near the driver’s seat belonged to him. He claimed not to know about the marijuana other than what was in the blue pouch, the report said.
Bowers then spoke with law enforcement and stated the black backpack was hers. A female named “Stephanie” had given her the marijuana for Rysavy to sell. She offered to give this person’s last name in exchange for not being arrested, the report said.
Bowers was arrested on charge of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. She was booked at Lake County Jail and released after posting $2,500 bond.
Rysavy was arrested on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while license suspended (habitual). The California native was booked at the jail on an $11,000 bond.
He was also arrested in Dec. 2025 with 20 baggies of narcotic residue.