Trial ordered for man accused of driving stoned
MONTGOMERY TWP. — A 19-year-old Montgomery Township man has been ordered to stand trial on multiple counts of DUI and endangering the welfare of children, along with related charges, in connection with an alleged March 28 incident in which police said he was found in possession of marijuana and other drugs during a traffific stop in which two juveniles were in the vehicle, and then later determined to have had marijuana in his system at the time he was pulled over.
Jarad Andrew Mondelblatt, of the 400 block of South Stone Ridge Drive, appeared via summons in District Judge Andrea Hudak Duffy’s Montgomery Township courtroom for a preliminary hearing on June 12.
Duffy held two counts each of misdemeanor DUI and endangering the welfare of children, and one count each of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor possession of marijuana and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.
Prosecutors withdrew two other summary charges fifiled against Mondelblatt: Disregarding a traffific lane and possession of alcohol by a minor.
Montgomery Township police have said that shortly before 8:30 p. m. that evening, offificers pulled over a Nissan Maxima on DeKalb Pike, near Route 63, after the vehicle repeatedly drifted out of its lane and crossed the double-yellow line while traveling a half-mile stretch of road.
Offificers said that Mondelblatt — who claimed that he had gone out of his lane because he was playing with the radio — appeared “extremely nervous,” his hands were “shaking uncontrollably,” and his speech was “slow at times” during the traffific stop.
Police identifified a passenger in the front of the car as a 17-year-old boy and a passenger in the back of the car as a 15-year-old boy, and while continuing to speak with Mondelblatt, an offificer noticed a piece of plastic under the 17-yearold’s leg. After fifirst claiming he didn’t know what the offificer was talking about, police said, he said that the bag “had marijuana in it but they had just smoked it at his residence.”
Mondelblatt was ordered out
of the vehicle, at which point, police said, they noticed several small pieces of marijuana on his T-shirt — Mondelblatt insisted he was “breaking it up” for his cohorts and that he hadn’t smoked any of the drug.
After Mondelblatt consented to a search of the vehicle, police said they found inside his wallet, which was in the driver’s side door, a gram of marijuana, along with a plastic bag containing two partial pills — one of which was identified as Adderall, for which Mondelblatt did not have a prescription — and a piece of straw, leading officers to believe that “the pills were being crushed and snorted.”
Three unopened bottles of Yuengling beer, packed in ice inside a grocery bag, were also inside the vehicle, and Mondelblatt admitted that the beer, marijuana and pills were his, police said.
Mondelblatt was asked to undergo field sobriety testing, which he failed, police said, and he was then arrested and transported to an area hospital for a blood draw, to which he consented.
Lab reports indicated Mondelblatt had marijuana in his system at the time of his arrest, according to police.
At the preliminary hearing, Duffy set bail as release on recognizance, so Mondelblatt remains free while awaiting his July 30 formal arraignment in county court.
He’s also due in county court on June 18 to be formally arraigned in a separate case — he’s charged with felony possession with intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance in connection with an arrest by Montgomery Township police earlier this year.
Mondelblatt waived both charges at a preliminary hearing before Duffy in May. He’s free on $10,000 unsecured bail in that case.