Local man stopped for driving scooter erratically pleads guilty
A local man arrested last summer on felony drug charges after being stopped while erratically driving an unlicensed scooter pleaded guilty to the charges Monday in Garland County Circuit Court.
Michael Charles Veasley Jr., 43, who lists a Mountain View Street address, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and furnishing or possessing prohibited articles and was sentenced to six years in prison, with the entire sentence suspended, fined $4,500 and ordered to pay $295 in court costs.
Additional charges of possession of a controlled substance, marijuana, with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from a later arrest were withdrawn.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on July 9, 2018, at around 9:30 p.m., Arkansas State Police Cpl. Andrew Ault saw an unlicensed Yamaha scooter turn off Central Avenue onto East Grand Avenue, then change lanes multiple times without using a signal, reportedly causing other vehicles to swerve to avoid a collision.
Ault followed the scooter as it turned onto Valley
Street, where he activated his emergency lights. The driver, later identified as Veasley, looked over his shoulder and made a U-turn and continued to drive down Hillwood
Street in the opposite direction of the officer. Ault followed Veasley until he finally stopped and took him into custody.
During a search, Ault found 0.9 gram of what later tested positive for cocaine, a baggie containing 0.6 gram of marijuana, another baggie with about 2.6 grams of marijuana and two clear plastic straws in his front right pocket.
Officers also found over $650 in small denominations on Ault. Once at the Garland County Detention Center, deputies located another baggie hidden in Veasley’s sock containing more marijuana, resulting in the additional charge of furnishing prohibited articles.
Veasley was later released on $11,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges on Jan. 28, 2019. He was set to stand trial on the charges on July 2, but opted to plead guilty Monday.