(BEDFORD) – Bedford Police Officers arrested a Bloomington woman Tuesday night after stopping her vehicle for an expired license plate.
Police arrested 49-year-old Michelle Ball on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, possession of meth, unlawful possession of a syringe, two counts of legend drug deception, possession of a controlled substance, criminal conversion, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to a probable cause affidavit, a Bedford Police officer was on routine patrol when he noticed a black Chevrolet Tahoe traveling north on I Street. The driver was failing to stay within their lane of travel and traveled over the center line.
The vehicle then turned west on 14th Street. That is when the officer noticed the vehicle had an expired license plate. The officer activated his lights and stopped the vehicle at the intersection of 14th and L streets.
The officer identified the driver as Michelle Ball. She told police she knew her license plate was expired.
Police then asked if she had anything illegal in the vehicle and she consented to a search of her vehicle.
Officers located a multi-colored zipper bag containing a glass smoking
device with a burnt crystal-like residue that tested positive for meth in the passenger floorboard. Also located in the bag was a plastic wrapper containing what tested positive for marijuana and a hand-rolled marijuana cigarette.
Police also found an empty alcohol container in the center console and an empty metal flask on the driver’s side floorboard and a cooler full of beer cans.
While speaking to Ball officers could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from her breath. Ball admitted to drinking prior to driving. She then failed three standardized field sobriety tests. Ball was transported to IU Health Hospital for a blood-draw and those results are pending.
Ball was arrested. She then told officers she had more items hidden in her bra. Those items were two clear plastic baggies that contained meth and a glass smoking device that had meth residue in it. They also found four more glass smoking devices, three capped syringes, and two cut straws with meth residue. They also located two prescription pill bottles not belonging to Ball but to her deceased mother. The first bottle contained 29 Larazepam and the other contained 89 Tizanidine Hydrochloride and 164 Gabapentin
While on the scene the officer noticed the sticker on the vehicle’s license plate was for a trailer. The officer ran the information and found the sticker was from a reported stolen trailer out of Bloomington.
