Kitty litter tied to drug arrest

A Cypress man who was arrested last year says a cheap, faulty test led police to believe he had a large amount of methamphetamine, when it was kitty litter in a sock.

When Ross Lebeau was pulled over by a Harris County Sheriff ’s deputy Dec. 5 for failing to use a turn signal, he said, he had no concerns about letting the deputy search his car. When the deputy asked him what was inside a sock, Lebeau replied that he had no idea.

The sock contained kitty litter, which Lebeau’s father had used to absorb moisture. But two field tests showed the substance was meth.

Lebeau was jailed on a $100,000 bond, later reduced to $50,000. The case was dismissed Jan. 4 in a Harris County court document that lists the reason as “not a controlled substance.”