A Lakeland woman was arrested on drug charges despite claiming she did not know about the over 40 grams of meth in her car.
An officer on patrol observed 51-year-old Christina Marie Cooley driving a red Toyota Camry out of the parking lot at the RaceTrac on U.S. Hwy. 27 around 7:05 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, according to an arrest report from the Clermont Police Department.
As he watched, she ran a stop sign and cut across two lanes of traffic without using a turn signal. She moved into the left-turn lane on Citrus Tower Boulevard, where she did not notice when the light turned green. She eventually made the turn, only to slowly swerve from the center lane, into the far-right lane and back to the center, the report said.
Cooley was traveling so slowly that the vehicle behind her went around using the right lane. Now directly behind her, the officer could see she was texting and driving. He subsequently stopped her at U.S. Hwy. 27 and Legendary Boulevard, the report said.
She spoke casually with the officer and admitted she must have been distracted by her phone. However, the officer noticed she continuously looked around inside her vehicle, smiled nervously when answering questions and would not keep eye contact. The officer asked for consent to search her vehicle, and she put her hand to her forehead, the report said.
Cooley looked like she did not want to answer and instead asked why more officers were arriving on scene, the report said. She ultimately denied consent. But a K-9 unit was already on scene, and a positive alert to the odor of narcotics meant her vehicle would be searched regardless.
When asked if she had anything illegal, she mentioned her son’s marijuana vapes. She also stated her boyfriend’s niece had been arrested in the vehicle for possession of methamphetamine, but no other drug user had used her vehicle since. She intently watched the officers as they began to search the interior, the report said.
They first discovered an orange-and-black digital scale in a black backpack and the aforementioned vape pens. One of the officers then pulled out a cigarette carton with a baggie of white pills. Cooley advised that these were just ibuprofen, the report said.
She added that law enforcement would find a burnt marijuana cigarette in the carton. The bookbag belonged to her son, and she told him to take it out of her vehicle because she could get in trouble for its contents. The officer asked why she would still drive around knowing she could get in trouble, and she appeared to be disappointed. She reiterated that she told her sone to remove those items, the report said.
The search continued, yielding a black-and-orange magnetic box that contained multiple baggies with a total of 40.78 grams of crystal methamphetamine. Cooley, now very nervous, asked where the officers found the box. They later stated it was stuck to the roof of her trunk and covered by her belongings, the report said.
The report noted that Cooley had already stated that everything in the trunk was hers. She had recently gone to her storage unit in Lakeland because she was moving in with her boyfriend, and she put all her belongings in the trunk. She claimed not to have seen the box at that time, although the officer indicated this was not reasonable, the report said.
The officers also located three glass pipes with crystal residue and two black digital scales among Cooley’s things. These were believed to be used to smoke methamphetamine, the report said.
Cooley was ultimately arrested on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $51,000.