PD: Man had crack, pot near school

MIDDLETOWN >> A local man appeared in court Monday after Middletown police say he was found with marijuana and crack cocaine just a few hundred feet from a private school.

James Hall, 61, dropped the drugs at his feet when police detained him late Friday on Hubbard Street, officials said in a report.

Police first spotted Hall at about 10:15 p.m. Friday while watching the area of Hotchkiss and Hubbard streets. Detectives were there because previous investigations have found a significant amount of drug sale usage there, police said.

Detectives saw Hall go into a home on Hotchkiss that is known as having a “significant” amount of drug activity and has been the subject of “numerous” warrants and arrests in the past, police said.

Hall stayed inside for several minutes before coming out and walking south on Hotchkiss toward Goodyear Avenue. Detectives tracked him to Hubbard Street, where they ordered him to stop.

Hall complied but allegedly dropped two small plastic bags on the ground. One contained a white, rock-like substance that police say they recognized as crack cocaine and the other a green leafy substance they recognized as marijuana.

“What’s that?” Hall reportedly asked the detectives, but they said they knew he’d dropped the bags.

Police handcuffed Hall and asked where he was coming from. He told the Maplewood housing complex, but investigators said that didn’t make sense because it was more than a half-mile away. He also continued to deny he had dropped the drugs, police said.

When he was arrested and searched, police found Hall had a crack pipe in his coat pocket, according to the report.

Police said the drugs weighed in at seven-tenths of a gram each. They said Hall was stopped about 311 feet from St. John’s School at 87 S. Main St.

Hall, who lives in the 600 block of High Street, was charged with possession of narcotics in a school zone, use of drug paraphernalia, possession of less than onehalf ounce marijuana and interfering with police.

During his arraignment, Hall’s charges were reduced to marijuana possession and interfering.

Hall, who had initially been held in lieu of $25,000 bail, was released on a promise to appear in court on March 6.