Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 22, 2002
MOON LAKE -- Barry Colbert let a 7-year-old drive his car last week. So on Wednesday he found himself leading investigators around his home, trying to prove that he's a good father figure.
He opened a kitchen cabinet to show them rice and beans.
Instead, they saw a glass bong -- a device used to smoke marijuana.
"I was like, "Oh, Christ. This is it. I'm going to jail,' " Colbert told the Times on Thursday.
Indeed, he went to county jail -- again.
Colbert was jailed the night of Feb. 15 after he let the boy drive his stick-shift Mercury Tracer while Colbert sat drunk in the passenger seat. At the time, he and Pasco County sheriff's deputies said the boy was his son.
On Thursday, Colbert said the boy actually is not his son. Rather, Colbert said, the boy is his wife's son; and Colbert has helped raise him since birth.
After the boy -- propped forward in the seat by a pair of inline skates -- ran into another car, Colbert took over the wheel and backed up to assess damages. Just then, deputies arrived and arrested him. They said he faced charges of driving drunk, habitually driving without a license and letting an unlicensed person drive.
Deputies came to his house on Wednesday, Colbert said, to make sure the 7-year-old and Colbert's 3-year-old son were safe.
"They thought the children were being neglected or whatever because I let him drive the car," said Colbert, who turned 39 Tuesday.
Colbert said he never has smoked from the bong.
"You can tell it hasn't been used in months," he said. "We don't do that. I just roll them up and go outside and smoke them."
That explains the rolling papers and trace of marijuana that deputies found on his bedroom desk, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.
Colbert said they found just a stem from a marijuana leaf.
He was arrested and faces charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, deputies said. He was released Thursday from county jail in Land O'Lakes after posting $1,000 bail.
The two boys were removed from his house, 12025 Smokey Lake Loop, on Wednesday and placed in a shelter, Colbert said. He vowed to do everything he could to get them back.
He said authorities were looking for adequate food in his kitchen when he opened the cabinet above the refrigerator. He was trying to show them the rice and bean packages he bought in 1999 to prepare for Jan. 1, 2000.
"I made sure we were all going to be OK if this Y2K thing came along," Colbert said.
He also said the bong belongs to a neighbor whose house recently burned down, not to him and his wife.
"We're not junkies or anything," he said.
-- Ryan Davis is the police reporter in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is rdavis@sptimes.com.