Two men were arraigned this week before District Judge Dominic Cercone on separate crack cocaine-related cases.
Jerome M. “B-Boy” Hayes, 32, of 116 King St., Olean, N.Y., was arraigned Tuesday morning for an allegedly possessing with the intent to the deliver the drug earlier that morning; meanwhile, Leonard E. “Meezy” Elder III, 27, of 153 Main St., Bradford, Apt. 424, was arraigned Wednesday for an alleged delivery on Dec. 18.
Elder also waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday before Cercone for a previous drug delivery case he is facing in McKean County.
Hayes is charged with possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance, a felony; disorderly conduct, a third-degree misdemeanor; possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor; and public drunkenness, a summary charge.
Regarding the case against Hayes, the criminal complaint alleges that at 1:25 a.m. Jan. 1, a Bradford City police officer responded to a report of a large fight in front of the Corner Bar, located at the corner of Mechanic and Barbour streets. The officer arrived to find a number of people fighting in the street, including Hayes and a woman named Crystal Sweetwine.
While the officer talked to Hayes and Sweetwine, who were both intoxicated, they were yelling and swearing at the officer and at other people from the fight, the complaint stated. The officer warned the pair to stop yelling or they would be arrested for disorderly conduct.
Hayes allegedly continued to yell and swear, so the officer told him he was under arrest and started to handcuff Hayes. While the officer was handcuffing Hayes, Sweetwine ran over, reached in Hayes’s right front coat pocket and pulled out items including a baggie of crack cocaine; the baggie contained an estimated 5.2 grams of crack cocaine, according to court records.
The officer immediately took the crack cocaine from Sweetwine and searched Hayes’s person, finding $1,270 in cash in his left from coat pocket, the complaint stated.
Hayes is in McKean County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail, and he is scheduled to appear in Central Court on Jan. 10.
Pennsylvania’s online docket system does not show any criminal charges against Sweetwine.
As for Elder, the criminal complaint for the new case against him states that at 3:15 p.m. Dec. 18, he conspired with Mitchell R. Garner, 29, of Buffalo, N.Y., to deliver .08 grams of crack cocaine.
A confidential informant with the McKean County Drug Task Force purchased the crack cocaine from Garner, who was staying with Elder in Room 424 of the Hotel Holley, according to the criminal complaint.
Both Garner and Elder were in communication with the confidential informant to arrange the sale via a shared “drug phone” where people could place orders for crack cocaine, court records stated.
Elder is charged in the new case with conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, a felony; criminal use of a communication facility, a third-degree felony; and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.
Elder is already incarcerated in jail on $50,000 in the previous case, but Cercone set additional bail in the new case at 10 percent of $10,000. He is scheduled to appear in Central Court on Jan. 10.
In the previous case — for which he waived a hearing on Wednesday — Elder is accused of selling .5 grams of crack cocaine to a confidential informant at 8:43 p.m. Sept. 19 on the sidewalk along Elm Street, the complaint stated. The sale was allegedly arranged via cell phone.
Elder is charged in that case with delivery of a controlled substance, a felony; criminal use of a communication facility, a third-degree felony; and possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.
Garner, who is jailed on $50,000 bail, is scheduled to appear in Central Court today for charges against him: contraband/controlled substance and possession of controlled substance contraband by an inmate, both second-degree felonies; two counts of delivery of a controlled substance and one count of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, all felonies; and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, both misdemeanors.
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer stated at the time Garner and Elder were arrested that one of them — at the time she did not say which — was found to be in possession of 14 additional baggies of crack cocaine during a strip search at the jail.
The contraband-related charges against Garner seem to indicate that person was him.
