Two people appeared in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas recently on felonious opioid-related charges.
A 55-year-old Washington Court House resident plead guilty June 26 to aggravated possession of drugs, fentanyl, a schedule II controlled substance, after her daughter requested a welfare check from the jail.
An inmate in the Fayette County Jail reported March 31, 2016 to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office that she was on the phone with her mother, Cathy D. Hoover, when she heard the phone drop. The jail inmate requested a welfare check on her mother and upon arriving at Hoover’s North Bend Court residence, officers received no response at the door. Someone who lived on the same street was able to provide the officers with a key to the house.
Once they gained access into the home, Hoover was found to be non-responsive on the couch. The officers reported the presence of a white substance on a plate on the coffee table in front of the couch. Along with the white powder, a piece of cut straw, an AARP card, a pipe, and marijuana were located on the table and collected as evidence.
The officers moved Hoover to the floor and asked her if she had used heroin. She did not respond but an officer administered Naloxone. An emergency squad arrived and transported Hoover to the hospital for treatment.
The white powder was tested at the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and was found be fentanyl. Hoover was indicted in January by a Fayette County grand jury for three charges: aggravated possession of drugs, aggravated possession of cocaine, and possession of heroin, all fifth-degree felonies. In an agreement with the state June 26, the two latter charges were dismissed.
In a second drug-related case, a man who was found slumped over in a vehicle at Jackpots in Jeffersonville was ordered to serve six months in prison for possession of heroin. Shannon M. Noel, 39, plead guilty to the charge (possession of heroin, a felony of the fifth-degree).
Noel was at Jackpots Aug. 29, 2016 , according to police reports, waiting on a person who was inside. When a Fayette County deputy sheriff arrived on the scene he had to shake Noel several times to get him to respond. The officer wrote in the report, “I could tell that he was under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both by the way his body language, speech and eyes were.”
After Noel was able to get out of the vehicle, he admitted to the officer that he had just bought heroin and used it, according to reports. He denied needing hospital treatment. Noel was arrested for having a bag of needles inside the vehicle and a burnt spoon with heroin residue. He was transported to the Fayette County Jail.
Noel received one day of local jail time credit on the charge for the day served in the Fayette County Jail. Following sentencing June 26, he was conveyed to the Correctional Reception Center in Orient to commence his prison sentence. He was ordered to pay $383 in costs for prosecution of the case.
