Cocaine

A Hagerstown man was charged with possession of crack cocaine after he was pulled over during a traffic stop Wednesday night in Frederick, Md., the Frederick Police Department said. Eddie Paul Jouvert, 43, of 50 Summit Ave., also was charged with possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine, according to a police news release. Officers said a K-9 unit detected the drugs after Jouvert was pulled over at 9:37 p.m. in the area of Key Parkway and Bel Air Lane.

A Ranson, W.Va., man accused of shooting another man at Jefferson Memorial Park in Charles Town, W.Va., last week was taken into custody Tuesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshals Service Mountain State Fugitive Task Force, police said. Maurice Larnard Hough, of 300 S. Marshall St., Apt. 5, was arraigned by Berkeley County Magistrate Harry L. Snow on one count of attempted murder and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to court documents. Hough was being held Tuesday night in Eastern Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond for the attempted murder charge and a $50,000 bond for the drug charge, according to court and jail records.

A jury took five minutes in March to find Edgar Sayles guilty of distribution of cocaine, a conviction that resulted in a 40-year mandatory sentence Friday in Washington County Circuit Court. Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. sentenced Sayles, 41, to 40 years without parole, an enhanced mandatory sentence due to his previous drug-crime convictions. The former Hagerstown resident had been charged by the Washington County Narcotics Task Force with selling crack cocaine to a confidential informant in April and May 2011, according to charging documents.

The Washington County Narcotics Task Force Monday arrested two Hagerstown residents, including a convicted murderer, on drug-trafficking charges. Phillip Levar Bailey, 52, of 867 Virginia Ave., was charged with three counts each of distribution of crack cocaine, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to distribute narcotics, along with single counts of maintaining a common nuisance and possession of controlled paraphernalia, according to court records.

A Washington County Circuit Court jury Tuesday convicted a Hagerstown man of selling crack cocaine a short distance from the Hagerstown courthouse where the trial was held. Gregory Harris, 45, was found guilty of distribution of cocaine and possession of cocaine. Judge Donald E. Beachley sentenced Harris to 10 years in state prison without parole, according to Robert Veil, the supervising state's attorney for the Washington County Narcotics Task Force. “I think it's an adequate sentence,” Veil said.

Four people, including a Hagerstown man, have been charged in a two-county drug investigation that involved more than 3,000 grams of cocaine and nearly $40,000 in cash, police said Wednesday. Geoffrey Roderick Venkus, of Hagerstown, was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of paraphernalia, according to a Frederick County Narcotics Task Force news release. Police armed with a warrant on Monday searched a hotel room where Venkus was staying in the Buckeystown Pike area of Frederick and found 700 grams of cocaine, a small amount of marijuana and $12,385, the release said.

Police in Martinsburg seized 31 grams of crack cocaine that a Martinsburg woman allegedly stashed in the trunk of the car that she was driving after being involved in a two-vehicle crash Friday afternoon, police said. Charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, Ashley Dawn King, 27, of 416 Overlook Drive in Martinsburg, was being held Friday night at Eastern Regional Jail on $50,000 bond, according to police and jail records. After the crash happened at Centre and East Burke streets, witnesses told police that King got out of the gold Cadillac she had been driving and removed an item in her bra and put it in the trunk of the vehicle before police arrived to investigate the crash at 1:04 p.m., according to a news release from Martinsburg Police Department Cpl. F.M. Polinik.

Initially charged with robbing a Washington County Narcotics Task Force informant during a drug deal, a Hagerstown man pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Judge Daniel P. Dwyer sentenced Ryheim Maurice Pearson, 21, of 1062 Ross St. to six years in prison. Charges of armed robbery, robbery, attempted robbery, theft and making false statements to police were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. "I do what I do to try and get drugs off the street.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge Tuesday sentenced a woman with a previous narcotics-distribution conviction to seven years in prison after she pleaded guilty to distribution of crack cocaine. "You could be a poster child here today for the devastation that drug abuse" causes individuals and families, Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. told Trina Elizabeth Earl, 50, of Hagerstown. He sentenced her to 15 years, but suspended eight years of the sentence. "I lost my home and all my possessions.

A grandmother with no previous criminal record pleaded guilty Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to two years in state prison. "You don't have a lot of experience as a drug dealer, and you're not very good at it," Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. said as he sentenced Jocelyn L. Bryant, 54, to six years in prison with four years suspended. Bryant, formerly of 659 Pennsylvania Ave., Hagerstown, said she came here from New Jersey to be with her daughter and grandchildren, but found herself homeless and needing money.