Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Search for runaways leads to drug stash

A man denies the teens are at his house, but a deputy finds them hiding. Then, deputies say, drugs fell from the man's shoes.

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS - What a deputy found in a closet at Joseph Reale Jr.'s home got Reale in trouble. What he found in the man's socks and shoes made matters even worse.

Citrus County sheriff's Deputy Dan Slingerland went to 65 S Jackson St. early Thursday searching for two teenage runaways. According to a report, Reale, 47, stepped onto the front porch to talk. He said that one of the girls dated his son but that neither girl was inside.

Slingerland asked to search for himself, and Reale agreed, the report said. But first, Reale wanted to secure a dog that was inside.

Slingerland found the girls, both 15, in a back bedroom closet, the report said. Reale told him he didn't know the girls were runaways.

The deputy said he was arresting Reale and retrieved the man's socks and shoes from his bedroom. A clear plastic bag fell to the ground. It contained methamphetamine, the report said.

Reale denied knowledge of the drugs, and so did the girls.

Since the drugs were in Reale's bedroom, and the girls were in another room, the deputy concluded the drugs were Reale's.

Reale was taken to the Citrus County jail and booked on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and drug possession. Bail was set at $6,000.

In other arrests:

Jessica R. Nelson said she wasn't driving. But a deputy - and the video camera in his patrol car - told a different story.

About 12:30 a.m. Thursday, Deputy Russell Howard said, he saw a car speeding south on Montgomery Avenue in Inverness. He followed it, reporting later that it crossed the center line and rolled past the stop sign at Druid Road.

The patrol car's lights were on and the vehicle pulled into the Lakes Region Library parking lot, an arrest report said. Howard said he saw Nelson, who turned 21 on Sunday, switch places with the passenger.

"Remember, I wasn't driving," the deputy heard Nelson tell the passenger.

According to the report, the patrol car is equipped with a video camera that caught all the action on tape.

The passenger, whose name was not included in the report, later said she had not been driving.

She said she and Nelson had been at a local bar that night. A record check showed that Nelson's driver's license had been suspended for habitual traffic violations, the report said.

Nelson, who listed a St. Petersburg address, was taken to jail and booked on charges of driving with a suspended license and resisting/obstructing a law officer without violence. Bail was set at $2,500.

[Last modified December 23, 2005, 01:13:18]