Traffic stop leads to felony drug charge; suspect fights with police
A Hot Springs Village man was arrested Wednesday on felony and misdemeanor charges after he was allegedly found in possession of drugs following a traffic stop and struggled briefly with arresting officers.
Robert Thomas Dark Jr.,
56, who lists a Cortez Way address, was taken into custody shortly before
12: 30 p. m. and charged with a felony count of possession of a controlled substance, meth, and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Dark, a felon on parole previously classified as a habitual offender, remained in custody Thursday in lieu of a $3,500 bond and is set to appear today in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Hot Springs police Officer 1st Class Wes Smith made a traffic stop on a beige Nissan Sentra for having expired tags and made contact with the driver.
Officer 1st Class Brandon McAdoo made contact with the passenger, identified as Dark, and discovered from a computer check he was a parolee with a search waiver on file. McAdoo had him step out so he could search him and the immediate area in the vehicle where he had been.
After Dark got out, the officer allegedly saw a baggie with residue on the ground where Dark was standing. He moved Dark back to Smith’s unit to pat him down and asked him to spread his feet. Dark apparently misunderstood him and removed his right shoe, McAdoo said, and he spotted another baggie inside the shoe.
Dark then allegedly tried kicking his shoe under
Smith’s unit “in an attempt to knock the baggie out.” At that point, McAdoo tried to take
Dark into custody, but he reportedly began to resist.
After a short struggle, officers were finally able to take Dark into custody and the baggie was found to contain 1.1 gram of what later tested positive for meth.
Dark was previously convicted in 1984 of violation of the uniform controlled substances act, in 1999 of breaking or entering and violation of the hot check law, all in Garland County; in 2013 in Hot Spring County of theft of property over $1,000; and in 2015 in Garland County of possession of a controlled substance, meth, where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison but later paroled.