CROSSVILLE, Ill. - The little village of Crossville east of Carmi in White County was a hopping place yesterday, Tuesday, February 26.
Besides the incident at Michael Jordan's place last night, another traffic stop possibly netted the county another set of payments, these coming from an alleged underage alcohol possession charge on a local teen.
The stop took place at a quarter to 7 last night on Main Street at Graves, according to the incident report.
The traffic stop was performed on a black Ford F-150 driving with no lights on, definitely not a good thing to do at that time of evening in late February.
When the officer went to speak with the driver, the driver flipped the lights on, but the officer nevertheless asked the young man for his license and proof of insurance. The driver, Jeffery Rawlinson, 19 of Carmi, advised that he didn't have his license on him, then started looking for his insurance card.
After the officer obtained Rawlinson's name and date of birth, he took it back to the squad to check it with dispatch. Rawlinson asked the officer if he could exit the truck to look for his insurance card, and the officer assented. When the officer returned to the truck, he found Rawlinson on the passenger side of the truck with the seat pulled forward, looking for the card. That's about the time the officer noticed the top of a wine bottle under the passenger's side seat.
The officer asked Rawlinson if the bottle was alcohol and Rawlinson said it was. Rawlinson pulled the seat a little more forward and the officer grabbed the bottle, with was a nice Von Jakob Ridge red wine, full with an unbroken seal. The officer asked Rawlinson if there was any other alcohol in the truck; the teen said there was not and gave consent to search. He did, and no more alcohol was found. However, the officer did locate a 12-ounce can of Natural Light beer in the bed of the truck, unopened.
All of this resulted in the officer advising the teen that he was going to be arrested for Illegal Possession of Alcohol by a Minor. At that point, Rawlinson decided to tell the officer (who was now being assisted by Deputy Scott Cantrell) that there was some marijuana in his pocket and he pulled out a crumpled receipt from a shirt pocket of his jacket, handing it to the officer. This lead to a search of Rawlinson's person, and a cannabis roach was discovered in the same pocket.
Rawlinson was handcuffed and toted off to jail with his truck having been secured as much as possible (one window wouldn't roll up). He was cited for Possession of Cannabis less than 10 grams (a civil charge) and Illegal Possession of Alcohol, for which Rawlinson made bond.